The records of British RN personnel are held at 3 different locations,
depending primarily on the time when a person entered or served in the
Navy or an auxiliary service.
1. MoD. Ministry of Defence,
CS(RM)2A,
Bourne Avenue,
Hayes,
Middlesex UB3 1RF,
England
2. Centurion. Naval Pay & Pensions (Accounts),
Centurion Building,
Grange Road,
Gosport,
Hampshire PO13 9XA
England
In both of the above archives, only written enquiries from next-of-kin
are accepted, and a search fee is charged. There is an ongoing process
of moving selected records from these locations to:
3. PRO. The Public Record Office,
Kew,
Richmond,
Surrey TW9 4DU
England
Tel: +44 (0)181 876 3444
http://www.pro.gov.uk/
It is not possible to search PRO documents online, and the PRO does
not undertake research on behalf of individuals. To access the documents
held at the PRO one must either go there in person and obtain an entrance
ticket, or employ a professional researcher to do the work for you. For
more information on this, start at:
http://www.pro.gov.uk/
PERSONNEL RECORDS
RN Officers. Pre-1914 at PRO, First and Second World Wars at MoD, post-WW2
at HMS Centurion.
RN Ratings. Ratings who served in WW1 or before are at PRO, unless they
continued in service beyond 1929. The latter, plus those who entered between
1924-1930 at MoD. Those who entered after these periods at HMS Centurion.
Royal Naval Reserves (RNR). World War 1 records at MoD. Earlier records
at PRO, later ones at HMS Centurion.
Royal Naval Volunteer Reserves (RNVR). WW1 records are being transferred
from MoD to PRO. World War 2 records at MoD. Later records at HMS Centurion
(RNVR amalgamated with the RNR in 1958).
Royal Naval Division (RND). First World War (1914-16) records at MoD.
Women's Royal Naval Service (WRNS). First World War records at PRO.
Records of women who entered between 1939-1955 at MoD. Later records at
HMS Centurion.
Queen Alexandra's Royal Naval Nursing Service (QARNNS). First World
War records at PRO, WW2 records at MoD, later records at HMS Centurion.
This information about personnel records is based on data provided by
MoD, November 1998. Because some records are to be transferred from MoD
to PRO, the detailed situation is subject to change.
ROYAL NAVY MEDALS
A few rare medals are known to have been issued to senior Naval commanders
to commemorate special events in the 16th and 17th centuries. The regular
awarding of medals began with the Naval General Service Medal. The 1793-1840
series was issued retrospectively in 1849 to surviving qualified personnel
in connection with Naval actions I this period. This medal was again
issued in 1915 and subsequently. There is useful general information about
Naval (and other) medals in:"British Battles and Medals" by Major L.L.
Gordon (Spink; London; 1947 and later editions).
For information on medals awarded to RN personnel in recent years (1939
to the present time) write to:
RN Medal Office,
Room 3105,
Centurion Building,
Grange Road,
Gosport,
Hampshire PO13 9XA
England
For information on medals awarded to all who entered the RN between
1924-1938 (inclusive), write to the Records Office at the MoD address (see
above).
The records for earlier periods (generally before 1924; the cut-off
date varies with the class of medal) are archived at the PRO, mainly in
the EV Series under ADM 171/xxx. Refer to Rodger (see below) for further
details.
This information on medals is based on data provided by the Armed Forces
Personnel Administration Agency, June 1999.
USING THE RECORDS
For personnel whose records are still held at the MoD and HMS Centurion,
enquiries must be sent in writing to the appropriate address, as given
above. In both cases, it is stated that they only accept enquiries from
next-of-kin or first generation descendants and these record archives charge
a search fee.
In the case of records held at the Public Record Office, the PRO will
not undertake to search for records. For serious research, they have recently
published a detailed guide to their records, to the ranks and ratings in
the RN at different periods, and to the various reserves and auxiliary
services in:
Naval Records for Genealogists, by N.A.M. Rodger. Public Record Office
Handbook No. 22 PRO Publications, Kew, 1998. ISBN 1 873 162 588
On-line help is also available from the PRO's own website. The PRO's
Records Information Leaflet No. 2 (Admiralty Records as Sources for Biography
and Genealogy) is accessible on-line. Go via:
http://www.pro.gov.uk/
Other leaflets about records of Royal Marines, Prisoners-of-War, Nurses,
Medals and Naval matters in general are also listed.
The Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts maintains a Register
of Archives. For a list of archives related to the armed services of Britain,
including Royal Navy archives, go to:
http://www.hmc.gov.uk/
PRINTED SOURCES
The Navy List is held at most large reference libraries, including the
National Maritime Museum's Library at Greenwich and the new Admiralty Library
section at the RN Museum at Portsmouth. It is a good way of tracing an
officer's career as each volume lists all officers' ranks and ships. It
has been published regularly since 1814.
The RN Museum at Portsmouth also holds in its archives the personal
papers of some individual officers and seamen.
Other multi-volume lists of RN officers include:
John Charnock: Biographia Navalis, published in London 1794-98.
This early work only includes post-captains and higher ranks.
John Marshall: Royal Naval Biography, published in London 1823-35.
Memoirs of the services of all the flag-officers, superannuated rear-admirals,
retired-captains, post-captains and commanders, whose names appeared on
the Admiralty list of sea officers ...
William R O'Byrne: A Naval Biographical Dictionary, published
in London in 1849 and again in 1861. This included all the RN officers
discoverable by him, and his extensive working notes are archived at the
British Library.
C G Pitcairn Jones: The Commissioned Sea Officers of the Royal Navy
1660-1815 published by the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, 1979.
The NMM holds an annotated 12 volume set, with much unpublished data. There
are earlier works with this title, published at various times since the
1950s, in collaboration with the Admiralty Library, in 1 or 3 volume sets
with no author's name, but they are less comprehensive.
The collection of manuscript archives at the NMM occupies over 4 miles
of shelving!
Contacting old shipmates: the monthly magazine Navy News regularly
publishes a page for Reunions, "Calling Old Shipmates" and other requests
for information. Write to:
The Editor, Navy News, Leviathan Block, HMS NELSON, Portsmouth, Hampshire
PO1 3HH, England. Tel: +44 (0)1705-294228.
Before 1853, unless you already know the name of a ship on which a rating
was serving, there is no simple way to trace the service of a RN rating.
Until 1853 ratings moved frequently between Royal and Merchant navy ships
and it is always worth checking merchant navy records also.
In 1853 a system of continuous service (CS) was introduced and from
this date forwards, service records for ratings can be the key to a valuable
source of flesh-on-the-bones information about a seaman ancestor, often
allowing a researcher to compile a highly accurate record of the life of
a man at sea
The first series of CS records are held in class ADM139. These
record the engagements signed by ratings on first entry (or re-entry for
those with earlier service) from 1853 to 1873.
The second series of CS records are held in class ADM188. These
record ratings who enlisted from 1873 to 1923. The series is indexed.
There are no records held at Kew or open to any form of public inspection
of ratings who entered from 1928 onwards. For records of RN ratings who
served between 1892 and 1938, contact the Ministry of Defence, CS ®
2A, Room 17, Bourne Avenue, Hayes, Middlesex UB3 1RF. For service after
1938 contact PP1 A1, HMS Centurion, Grange Road, Gosport, Hampshire PO13
9XA.
Once you have obtained names of ships on which a RN rating was serving,
research in the series of Musters and Ships' Logs will provide much background
information.
The Public Record Office has recently updated their information leaflets
and the most recent version is available on line from their website at
http://www.pro.gov.uk
Their catalogue is also online which will allow you to identify the correct
documents you require.
More detailed information about Naval records at the Public Record Office (PRO) and specific
classes or series of records are provided in the PRO's online leaflets for researchers.
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE (PRO) ONLINE LEAFLETS
The Public Record Office's Research Information Leaflets have been developed over the years by members of staff and by generous contributions from researchers. As more information is discovered and new records are accessioned the leaflets are updated. The main A-Z Index of all leaflets provides the researcher with a variety of topics and information.
Copyright notice: The PRO Records Information Leaflets are subject to Crown Copyright. Although researchers are welcome to print copies of leaflets for personal research use, they cannot be copied for commercial purposes nor republished in any form, including electronically.
PRO Family Fact Sheets
http://www.pro.gov.uk/
Researchers should stop by the Family Facts Sheets area of the PRO website for information about:
Tracing an Ancestor in the Navy: Ratings; Tracing an Ancestor in the Navy: Officers; and Tracing an
Ancestor in the Merchant Navy: Seamen.
A very important book for anyone researching their English and Welsh ancestry - including Royal Navy records is in its 5th edition,
Tracing Your Ancestors in the Public Record Office by Amanda Bevan (1999),
includes exceptionally detailed information about a variety of Navy records with much more detailed information than what is
provided in this introductory article. The book is also important for understanding the wide variety of other records held by
the PRO.
The Imperial War Museum now has a superb database of its possessions, and it
can be viewed at their site and
following links to 'Below the Waves'. There are many pictures and sound archives
available online, but this is really a listing of different exhibits.
The Public Records Office
at Kew has also brought its catalogue
online, and a search for, for example, "Submarine Patrol Reports" and
selecting a range of years, will bring up a list of these invaluable documents.
However, this is again just a catalogue and the actual documents are normally
viewed at the PRO. Even then, at a price, many of the documents can be digitised
and sent.
Another good site with connections to researchers.....
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