Admiralty Shipyard in Bath

[Ayashi]

My great grandfather was a shipwright. I knew that he was involved with the admiralty during the war but had always assumed that he worked out of London, where he was before and after the war. The 1939 Register places him in a boarding house, 11 Marlborough St, in Bath, Somerset. My great grandmother and the two youngest children (the eldest three are serving) are in Cornwall with her sister.

I don't know a great deal about his wartime activities- just family rumour. The proverbial little birdie says that he was involved with PLUTO, outfitting the tug boat Britannic.

A quick Google didn't give me any useful results. Does anyone know anything about the admiralty dockyards in Bath? Apparently there was a big building but other than that I know nothing! Is there a link between Bath's shipyards and the Britannic?

His father and his son both served in wars and I have their service records and medals, but my great-grandfather, as a civilian, doesn't have those records.

Just wondered if anyone was knowledgeable on that area!

Thanks in advance
Ayashi

[solidrock]

Bath is about 22 miles from the nearest large body of water so I would assume that it was very unlikely to be an admiralty dockyard there.

[tonepad]

The two links below have information about the Admiralty moving ship design from London to Bath in WW2:

http://royalcrescentbath.co.uk/HistoryBathatWar.htm

http://www.coleshillhouse.com/admiralty-3-warminster-road-bath-auxiliary-unit-patrol.php



Tony

[Brentor boy]

There are/were a number of military, including naval, establishments in the Bath area, often engaged in classified operations. Is it possible he may have been involved in planning or research?

[Ayashi]

Thanks all.

I'm not sure why I thought Bath was next to the sea, maybe the watery name! Obviously something was there.

Of course, it is entirely possible he moved elsewhere to work on PLUTO if he was involved in the physical side of things, I haven't yet found out where the ship side of things was based. The war was six years long after all! In an article in Norwood News in 1948 it says that Walter and his wife had lived at their address in Upper Norwood for sixteen years. Bath is a significant place in my family- after speaking to mum, turns out my great grandfather's third son also worked at the Bath admiralty and so did my grandmother- that's how my grandmother ended up meeting my grandfather (and the rest, as they say, is history).

If he was involved with the planning rather than the manual labour that is certainly an additional piece of the puzzle for his wartime career, but again I don't know if there is any way of actually finding out solid information on what he did. A lot of the time, including the 1939 Register and his son's marriage in 1948, Walter is down as a "civil servant" but other documents specify his ship work.

Shipwright apprentice Govt Dockyards (1911)
Shipwright HM Dockyard (1917 and 1919)
Assistant Naval Constructor- admiralty, retired (1953)
Assistant Naval Constructor (retired) (1978)

[mazi]

An apprenticeship in those days in a specialised industry was an established career path, leading to management or technical specialist in design, so I see no reason why he should not have moved to bath for the duration of the war to work in the drawing office or similar work.

My relative followed a similar path in heavy electrical engineering, and on the railways it was almost the only way to become an engineering specialist or works manager.

Mike

[radstockjeff]

I believe that some of the design work for the Mulberry Harbours used in D-Day landings were designed at Bath. Kingswood School was taken over and used by the Admiralty for some of their design work on this project.

[Ayashi]

There was family rumour that he was in line for a promotion that would have come with a knighthood except he was ineligible/blocked because he went to a public school. Could be nonsense of course. Or perhaps embellishing on the fact that he was involved in important work.

I haven't heard anything of Mulberry Harbours being mentioned but then again my mother wasn't even born when Walter died so her sisters or our cousins might have heard different things.

If he moved to Bath for the war, unless the newspaper was mistaken about how long they had lived continuously in Norwood (the problem with census and the register being that it was one night only, no idea how long his wife was in Cornwall for) do you think he would have had reason to conceal the fact that he was in Bath from the people back home?

[youngtug]

Operation Pluto;  https://youtu.be/RqKxeYZLNmU