Genealogy Chat

Hi could anyone help me.I have come across a photo which was my dad,s,he has not got a clue who it is.In the photo the gentleman is in uniform with a cap on and on the cap it says HMS VICTORY. Has any one got any idea what year this would have been and would it be official.It is a vey old photo i would like to show but dont know how. Thanks Linda.

Can you discribe the uniform and the cap and perhaps some naval enthusiast might have an idea of the year!

HI The uniform is dark with long sailor collar to a v at the middle of chest pale couloured t.shirt type top underneath,collar is lighter in colour with three white stripes round the edge.It has some kind of badge on the left side of chest.Hat is white with black band and a what looks like a bow on the left side,with hms victory in white letters on the right,hope you understand that thanks linda

Thanks Carole Did the description of uniform help because i know they have changed over the years

Hi I know that this photo was taken by a photographer in Brighton 79 West Street.

Dont know if these have been covered already still searching for unifrom though! Royal Navy have been named HMS Victory. * Victory - 42-gun ship, originally Great Christopher, purchased by the Royal Navy in 1569 and broken up in 1608. * Victory (1620) - 42-gun ship launched at Deptford. She was rebuilt in 1666 as an 82-gun second-rate ship of the line and broken up in 1691. * Victory (1691) - 100-gun first-rate ship of the line. Ex-Royal James, renamed Mar 7, 1691. Great repair 1694-1695. Burnt by accident in February 1721. * Victory (1737) - 100-gun first-rate ship of the line. She was wrecked in 1744 on the Casquets off Alderney. * Victory (1764) - 8-gun schooner. She served in Canada and was burned in 1768. * Victory (1765) - 100-gun first-rate ship of the line. She served in the American War of Independence, the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. She was Keppel's flagship at Ushant, Jervis's flagship at Cape St Vincent and Nelson's flagship at Trafalgar. She served as a harbour ship after 1824 and was moved to a dry dock at Portsmouth in 1922 where she continues to be flagship of the Second Sea Lord, and is preserved as a museum ship.

Hi linda If you type in hms victory caps on google and search under images it comes up with quite a few pictures maybe one may match?

What was the Photographers name!, I have found this: SHARP Burt 79 West Street 1892-1894

Hi The photographers name looks like J Perndon or Pundon 79 West Street Brighton

I have someone in my family tree who served on HMS Victory II during 1924. He married in 1926 and the uniform he is wearing looks like the one you described above - but then these uniforms may have been worn for quite some time, I don't know. Does the photo look older than the twenties?

Here we go - a little clue for you, taken from the Directory of Photographers in Brighton and Hove: PURDEN James (PURDON) 79 West Street 1910+ This means that this photographer was at this address AFTER 1910. Therefore, your photograph could have been taken around the time of WW1 perhaps? Or even later if this person continued to serve with the navy after WW1 ended. Athena

yes i saw it i think your right,its so old and the name is hard to see but think your right thank you.

Linda - did you see my 2nd message above? Athena

Linda - has this helped you narrow down who the person might be? If it is someone from your dad's family it could have been an uncle or grt uncle, for example. If you know the names of some of the male relatives in your dad's family who would have been of age during WW1, you can search for their naval records online at the National Archives website. It costs £3.50 to download the document - and they usually list all the ships that the person served on, so you should be able to pinpoint which of them served on HMS Victory. That's how I would do it, anyway. All the best Athena

Athena its helped alot thankyou,i will get to the bottom of it, im determined.You are fantastic on here wish i had your brains thanks again linda

The only problem with HMS Victory is that it was also the name of the training base at Portsmouth, a very large majority of navel personnel would have served there at some time. My Grandfather served several tours there.