Help with Royal Naval Volunteer Reserves

[MaxD]

Actually it says OS he would have been an  Ordinary Seaman to start with then progressed through the others. 

I've now turned up all there is on your man.  RN records are notoriously thin on detail, his seaman record says nothing about where he served before commissioning.  His commission in August 1917 followed immediately by a posting (for training) to the Reserve Battalions at Blandford and then the battalions in France are a bit more straightforward.
His arrival with Nelson Battalion coincided with the break up of that battalion during February 1918 (not his fault!) and he may never have actually served with them even though his posting was to them.  I did find a reference to him in the Hawke battalion diary (and promptly lost it!).

In any event I think you may be a bit further forward now?  I'll have a look at the 63 Division HQ diary and the 189 Brigade diary when I have time to see if I can find anything more.

MaxD

[mlr0663]

Thanks so much MaxD - as always a fantastic font of knowledge and amazing help

Found the mention of him in the Hawke diaries - rejoining the Batt from Div Wing on June 6th 1918.  So will have a peak at those diaries if they are on Ancestry

Have a lovely Sunday and once again thanks 

Margaret

[MaxD]

My pleasure.  I am continuing to dig, I don't think we know enough about his pre-commissioning service.  More hopefully later.

The diaries are on  Ancestry.  In the search box for the France/Belgium/Germany diaries, put 3114 in the keyword box and nothing else.  In the results click on the first Nelson Battalion entry and fast forward to Jan 1918 when he was, on paper at least, posted to them.  Do the same with the Hawke battalion.

MaxD

[mlr0663]

Thanks Muchly 

[ShaunJ]

There's a lot of information about his service 1915-1917 on the back of his discharge record card.

https://search.findmypast.co.uk/record?id=gbm%2fadm339%2f0282-milb%2f00160&parentid=gbm%2fadm339%2f31920

[ShaunJ]

and more on the next image:
https://search.findmypast.co.uk/record?id=gbm%2fadm339%2f0282-milb%2f00161&parentid=gbm%2fadm339%2f31920

[mlr0663]

Thanks so much ShaunJ - those never appeared when I did a FindMyPast search for my man - only the front of them, strange as I have a full subscription - but that helps a lot.

Thanks muchly
Margaret

[ShaunJ]

There's more to his officer's record too:

https://search.findmypast.co.uk/record?id=gbm%2fadm339%2f0021-mell%2f00043&parentid=gbm%2fadm339%2f4589

https://search.findmypast.co.uk/record?id=gbm%2fadm339%2f0021-mell%2f00044&parentid=gbm%2fadm339%2f4589

[ShaunJ]

Thanks so much ShaunJ - those never appeared when I did a FindMyPast search for my man - only the front of them, strange as I have a full subscription - but that helps a lot.

You have to use the arrow on the right of the screen to move on to the next image in that set