Alfred Henry Willis - Royal Navy 1896? I need to find more:)

[fiandmo]

I have recently obtained my grandfather Alfred Henry Willis' record from the Royal Navy Register of Seamen's Services ADM 188.

However (and isn't this always the case?) it doesn't quite tally with family knowledge and what he put on his WW1 attestation.

According to the record, his period of Service was 8 June 1896 - 10 Dec 1896 - on the Katoomba. Under discharge, it says 'shore OR' (or something like that).

According to his Australian Army WW1 attestation, his previous military services was 6 years English Navy, 2 3/12 years Africa, 6 years 11 months Australian engineers.

It is hard to say whether the African service was a) part of his naval service, b) part of his engineers service or c) part of neither

Can someone please help me interpret this record?  And find out what a typesetter from Lower Hutt in New Zealand (incorrectly transcribed as Northern Ireland in TNA catalogue) was going in the Royal Navy in the 1890s?

Many thanks

Fiona
Auckland, NZ

[HeartyR]

Did he jump ship? 

[Salty]

It would be easier for us if you put a scanned copy of the record on here.

Salty

[fiandmo]

Thanks Salty - just had to wait until I could get to a scanner - here's Alf's record in all its glory

Cheers
Fiona

[fiandmo]

Have since found that the Katoomba was part of the Royal Navy Auxiliary Squadron - a squadron partly funded by the Australian and NZ governments and based at Sydney.  So Alf was not so far from home as I had originally thought.

Would still love help in interpreting the rest of his record - particularly what the list/no. & rating means and what happened when he was discharged.

Thanks
Fiona

[Leofric]

Hello Fiona,

Why did he join the Royal Navy? Well there's nothing new in that, when I joined up in 1967 we had one Aussie and one Kiwi in our class of recruits. Also, was there an HMNZ navy in those days as now?

Regarding the list and rating - the List is simply a breakdown of the ship's company for admin purposes - Officers/Petty Officers/junior ratings etc and sometimes also split into depts.
The number next to it is his ship's book number - very important to him for that's his pay record number! As for his rating - hard to decipher but the first three letters look like 'Sto' (Stoker?) and the last couple I can't make out.
Regarding the notation on discharge; in my day it was also 'shore' and usually 'time expired' too to show he was leaving just because he'd reached the end of his contract. But I don't know what the OR means...

regards Leofric

[fiandmo]

Thanks Leofric - that does clear up some of the record.  Would he 'carry' that ship's book number through to other postings?

Thanks to online newspaper archive here (Papers Past) I have found that the Katoomba may have been in Lyttleton (port of Christchurch) on the date Alf joined - which means that he may have joined the ship/enlisted there - not far away from where the family lived in Ashburton. 

So that may explain how a typesetter from Ashburton ended up in the Royal Navy

There was no NZ navy (or Australian) at the time - so if you wanted to 'run away to sea' - the English navy was your best bet I suppose!

One more piece in the puzzle - thanks again!

Fiona

[Leofric]

Thanks Leofric - that does clear up some of the record.  Would he 'carry' that ship's book number through to other postings?

Fiona,

No - joining a new ship you would be allocated a new ship's book number.

regards