Genealogy Chat

According to my fathers WW2 Naval Service Records all his war service was at shore bases in England, Scotland and Iceland. The Ministry of Defence report apologises for lack of information to Shore Establishments as very few records were kept.
Does anyone know anything about these bases. My father served on eight such bases.
Anne-Marie

The only help i can give is that my Dad during his 12 years (1937 to 1949) in the Royal Navy also served at some shore bases.You should have the names of these bases on his record, all i did was to google the name of the base, some are more detailed than others
Mainly you get a history of the base, no record of any individual who served there.

There are some" Forums" avaliable you have to register but you can ask questions, not looked for sometime though so dont know if still operative.

George

Hi George,
Yes I have all the names and dates when they operated. I have tried Google but all I came up with was regular ships or as in the case of HMS Rooke the land base in Gibraltar when my dad's HMS Rooke was a Boom Defence Central Depot Rosyth.
Anne-Marie

Anne-Marie

Yes it is difficult to find the info about shore bases, out of curiosity i googled "HMS Rooke shore base Rosyth", yes there is info but not much detail.

I was once told there was some info at Kew, but i have not pursued it, so dont know how true that is.Perhaps you may wish to pursue that

Not much help am I, but as my Dads service was mainly serving on ships his shore bases is not something i have investgated

George

Anne-Marie

There is a member on GR who is an absolute whizz on both military matters and info held at Kew.

Her board name is "was plain ann now annielaurie" if you can find one of her posts and send a PM im sure she will advise you, much better than i can.

I will also look and see if i can find one of her posts and let you know


George

Edit she posted on this thread

http://www.genesreunited.co.za/boards.page/board/records_office/thread/1248326

George,

I will look for the post that you mention and thank you for your help. I will also Google "HMS Rooke shore base Rosyth" why I didn't think of that myself!!

Anne-Marie

Hello there.

There is a Royal Navy tradition to name shore bases HMS Whatever and living at one is treated just as if you where aboard a ship. Members of my family have been based at HMS Collingwood and HMS Sultan, both near Gosport. Both are training establishment "ships" that are not near the water!

I had a Great Uncle who was killed in action in WW1 and I obtained his service record which showed at the ships he'd served on. These "ships" included shore bases such as, HMS VIVID, Devonport Barracks, renamed in 1934 to HMS Drake and HMS INDUS Mechanicians establishment and workshop, Devonport.

Google is a great help in tracking down some of these places.

Some shore bases my where my father served in WWII - Campbeltown in Scotland, HMS Osprey moved there from Portland. There was a big set up in Dunoon, I think may have been HMS Nimrod - or was that Campbeltown?, and another set-up in Fairlie in Ayrshire - a research station, can't remember its name.

George, I have contact with Ann, thank you.

Slartibartfast, Never thought of 'old boys clubs' will look at that avenue. Thanks.

Steve, This is the kind of background I need, but hard to imagine a ship not near the sea!

Elizabeth, My dad was at HMS Rooke in Rosyth.
HMS Barrhead in Iceland really interests me as I have a large certificate of the Brotherhood of the F.B.I. when he was stationed at HMS Barrhead in Iceland for more than 101 days. He in fact was there for 1 year and 4 months. This I think is a tongue in cheek certificate but interesting none the less.

Thanks one and all
Anne-Marie