Missing Navy officer help please

[chris2705]

My guess is RN Reserve or Voluntary Reserve given his career before and after the War

[seaweed]

Philip H W Baker is first recorded in the Navy List January 1919
Seniority 3/10/1918
Lieutenant (Temp)
RME
No recorded ship number but the entry above is 703 so PHWB
may have had the same number.

PHWB was next recorded in TNL April 1919 as demobed.

So what does all this amount to? An educated guess but others may know more.

Seniority 3/10/1918 The date he was commissioned.
Lieutenant (Temp)  Obvious.
RME Royal Marines       Engineer?
No recorded ship number but the entry above is 703 so PHWB
may have had the same number. Ship 703  was HMS PRESIDENT
A nominal shore base for the purpose of pay. It seemed to be home to all sorts of flotsam and jetsam who could not be assigned to other departments.


I would check the RM officers records in The National Archives
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/RdLeaflet.asp?sLeafletID=58
and thoroughly check all the entries for HMS PRESIDENT in TNL January 1919 ( there are hundreds)

[chris2705]

Seaweed, thank you so much for looking at this.

The entry would seem to fit. He was an engineer by profession and shore-based, being in Buenos Aires at that time

[chris2705]

Just looking at the dates again, this must be one of the shortest commissions ever! The timing is curious too, as he was commissioned just as the War was ending and demobbed less than six months later.

[seaweed]

An interesting post on the Great War Forum
Scroll down to post 3 and 4
http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=140750

It may also pay you to contact the Royal Marines Museum
http://www.royalmarinesmuseum.co.uk/index2.html

[chris2705]

I found this thread as well yesterday as it is one of the few hits that comes back when searching online. It would again seem to fit with his profession as an electrical engineer as well as the dates. The more difficult thing now I guess is trying to find out what his role was in Argentina. Thanks again for taking the time to look.