Navy Discharge Certificate

[elldee]

My aunt has just discovered a very badly damaged Certificate of Service/Discharge for my great grandfather dated 1920 and stating that he served in the RNR from 1915 until his discharge in 1919.  However, according to my late grandmother he died during WWI.
 
If he had died would a discharge certificate have been issued anyway or does this prove he can't have died whilst still in service.

Thanks, Elldee

[neil1821]

Elldee,
If he died during the war, or shortly afterwards of injuries sustained, then his death should be recorded on the CWGC database.

Have you searched on their site?
http://www.cwgc.org/

Neil

[Dave Francis]

...additionally, have you searched here to see if his service record is available for download?
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documentsonline/

[elldee]

Hi,

I have looked on both these sites and found entries which could relate to my grandfather, whose name was Andrew Doyle.  The problem is I don't know very much about him.  My grandmother said he was from Gorey, Co. Wexford (but who knows) and I know they were living in Dublin when she was born.  The only entry I could find on the CWGC site has few details of the person, and I did download a service record of an Andrew Doyle from Kingstown, Dublin from the NA site but this dates from the early 1900's - I couldn't find anything covering the War.

Elldee

[Dave Francis]

The CWGC website does, of course, list the death of "A Doyle" on 12 Oct 1918 (S.S. Inverawe, Royal Naval Reserve). He was laid to rest in the Greenwich Royal Naval Cemetery (grave ref. C C 52). If nothing else, it might be worth finding out who this person was. Perhaps you, or some kind soul, could visit the cemetery and see if the gravestone reveals anything.

[neil1821]

On this damaged certificate of discharge you have, is there not a service number mentioned anywhere?

Neil

[elldee]

There is, apparently, a certificate number on the paper but my aunt has the original in Ireland and she can only decipher part of the number.  Is it possible to find out more about the person if I have the certificate number?  (My parents may be going over to visit my aunt soon so I could see if they could bring it back for me to look at).

Elldee.

[neil1821]

If the number is a service number, it's definitely worth noting.
Won't so much tell you more information, but what it will do is tell you when you have a match when looking at records of several Andrew Doyles.

Take the A.Doyle on the CWGC site that Dave mentions as an example, he has the service number 3131/B. If the same number appears on your certificate, then you have a match!

I'd expect the service number to be on any official document about your g-grandfather.

Neil