Merchant Navy Continuous Certificate of Discharge

[teleman]

Hi,
    Is it possible to get a copy of a merchant seaman's continuous certificate of discharge which I presume as all the ships he served on.The only information I have is a list of medal he was awarded which I got off the national archive web site and the only information on it is his name, DOB place of birth a number at the end of the line which is 108249 his name is John Walsh DOB 03-10-1904 born in Accrington.I have attached the medal list it may be of some help.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks Ian

[gortonboy]

There's this record?   Image available on findmypast

John
Last name   Walsh
Event year   1921
Birth year   1904
Birth place   Accrington
Birth county/country   Lancashire
Birth date   ? ? 1904
Discharge number   R 83909
Card type   CR1
Archive   
The National Archives
Series   BT349
Date range   1921-1941
Record set   Britain, Merchant Seamen, 1918-1941

[gortonboy]

And

First name(s)   John
Last name   Walsh
Event year   1921
Birth year   1904
Birth place   Accrington
Birth county/country   Lancashire
Birth date   ? ? 1904
Discharge number   R 83909
Card type   CR2
Archive   
The National Archives
Series   BT348
Date range   1921-1941
Piece number   1
Record set   Britain, Merchant Seamen, 1918-1941

[Ray T]

I think you’ll find that they are on Ancestry but she ships he served on aren’t referred to by name but by their official number (there’s some logic to this as names, but not numbers, can be re-used).

The one and only time I needed a seamans record, I contacted the Southampton Archives, where the original cards are held and they not only supplied copies of the documents for a very reasonable fee (£7 ten or so years ago) they also translated the ship numbers into names. I assume that they still offer this service.

[HMac]

Hi, The cards CR1 and CR2 are only one part of his record. These cards refer only to service prior to Jan, 1941. There are two registers of service that cover merchant seamen's records for the 20th Century, namely The Fourth Register of Seamen effectively [1918-1940] and The Fifth Register of Seamen [1941 - 1972] If you only look at FindMyPast you will not get his WW2 service file.

John Walsh 3rd Engineer was killed aboard ss FORT CREVIER in the huge Bombay explosion aboard FORT STIKINE on 14.4.1944. He is mentioned by name here: http://merchantships.tripod.com/fortcrevier3.html

His service record [CRS 10] from Jan, 1941 should be held at Kew in piece BT 382/1874 -
https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C10990099 best obtained by visit to Kew but obviously you will have to wait until the present emergency is over. 

This is a breakdown of the cards - note they will probably contain some mistakes and omissions and not a true voyage record of his early service but it gives you a start.

119878 – STAGPOOL – 4.1.1930
132822 – FISHPOOL – 4.9.1930
139228 – ROXBY - 2.1.1931
139248 – ULLAPOOL – 30.12.1931
127464 – LEVENPOOL – 16.4.1932
127464 – LEVENPOOL – 19.9.1932
139258 – KIRKPOOL – 30.7.1935.
As I said you will need his CRS 10 for service during WW2.

Regards
Hugh

[teleman]

Hi,
     Is there any way to get a copy of the CRS10 for my grandfather other than visiting the National Archive in person does anybody offer to copy while they are visiting for themselves.


Ian