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General => Armed Forces => World War One => Topic started by: Tess61 on Friday 10 April 15 20:43 BST (UK)
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This is a photo of my great uncle John Richard Gough who died whilst on a ship in Canada in 1918. Please can anyone tell if the uniform is Merchant or Royal Navy?
Thanks
Tess
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l would put my money on Royal Navy (Sunday Dress ) and a stoker to boot, being a former bootneck I could be wrong best wait for conformation from a jolly jack.
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Tess
If he died in 1918 whilst still serving he should be on CWGC...I can't see him though?
Any other info? uniform looks pre ww1.He MAY have transferred to Mercantile Marine and their CWGC commemorated have different criteria....Or he may have been missed.
Do you have his RN Record from the NA?
Ady
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The National Archives have an entry in the Royal Navy Registers of Seamen's Services for a John Richard Gough, born 1882 at Larne. Is this your man?
Nanny Jan
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Yes that is him but don't know if this picture is him. If the uniform is Royal Navy then it likely is him. Please can you send me the link to the archives on him.
Thanks
Tess
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According to deaths at sea he was a donkeyman, he died 2 November 1918 St John's Newfoundland, cause of death influenza and pneumonia.
Should have added his ship was the Canadier.
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Hi, as far as I can see he is definitely RN going by the collar and the black silk and white lanyard he is wearing.
Frank.
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Yes that is him but don't know if this picture is him. If the uniform is Royal Navy then it likely is him. Please can you send me the link to the archives on him.
Thanks
Tess
The link: http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D6767729
Nanny Jan
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Thanks everyone. Was the canadier a Royal Navy ship? Have looked at national archives but they charge 3.30 to view the record so I'll do that tomorrow. Could the people on the photo part of the forum date the photo?
That would confirm if it is in fact John Richard.
Thanks again everyone.
Tess
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I know little about the RN, but I would say he was wearing tropical whites. His service record should show what ship he was on and when, you should get a rough idea of the date then.
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That's a strange cap :-\
Frank.
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The propellor badge on his arm is the trade badge for a 'stoker' or marine engineering rating. I think the hat is a straw sennit hat. British Royal Navy dress for a warm climate.
Apparently they no longer wore the sennit hat after 1921.
Donkeyman (was in charge of a donkey-engine, a small steam-engine, usually for subsidiary operations on board ship, as feeding the boilers of the propelling engines)
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He was not serving in the RN after 1907.
A donkeyman is a Merchant Navy rating and if it was him who died in 1918 on CANADIER then he must have joined the MN at some time afterwards. CANADIER was built in 1906 official number 121325, originally launched as AUCHENDALE (1906) renamed CANADIER (1916).
If you check the 1918 crew agreement for CANADIER his name should be mentioned as part of her crew but also, usually, and importantly if he had a previous ship it should also be mentioned. The 1918 crew agreement is held at the Maritime History Archive, Canada - https://www.mun.ca/mha/holdings/viewcombinedcrews.php?Official_No=121325
Regards
Hugh
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The RN record (viewable on both Ancestry and FindMyPast) shows that he was invalided out in 1907
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He was definitely Royal Navy in the photograph, so date 1907 or before.
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Thanks for confirming it.
Tess
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Straw hats were a feature of hot weather kit going back to the 1850's at least. I've seen images of sailors, on land, in the Crimea in white uniforms with straw hats, different design, larger brims.
Sad about your man, discharged unfit and evidently a victim of the 'Spanish' influenza of 1918/19. Didn't take long to reach Canada did it. Killed more people in Europe than the Great War you know.
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Ancestry has a Canadian death registration entry for him in the register of the St John Bureau of Health (St-Jean (Bureau de Santé)) - in the Acadia dataset. Registered as John Gough.
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Ok thanks to all. I got the crew records and it states it was his first ship, so he must have served with the Royal Navy till 1907 and was discharged. Then he must have joined the Merchant Navy in 1918 which sadly was his frst and last voyage with the Merchant Navy. So it seems the photograph was taken before the end of 1907.
Thanks everyone.
Tess