Thread: Help finding naval records for Kenneth Batchelor b 08/10/1925

I am trying (without success) to locate my grandfathers naval records, He was born on 8th Oct 1925 & pasted away in Feb 1981



He was awarded the British Empire Medal along with the 1939-1945 War Medal & the 1939-1945 Star



We know he either served on a freight or battleship, but as yet my search for the vessel(s) during that time have been futile.



Any help would be gratfully recieved



Many Thanks

Hi Debbatch,

Have you tried this website?



www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documentsonline/royal-navy-service.asp.



Or the National Maritime Museum website?



www.nmm.ac.uk.



These should give you what you are looking for.



Sally

Thank you sally

I have tried both of those with no luck....

frustration is now beginning to set in!

I have also tried:

HMforces

Imperial War museum

The National Archives

The Royal Navy Museum

and finally the Royal Navy Association .............



I have found one other person search for relatives of my grand father, but you have to pay to reply.



Can anyone tell me the difference between the Royal Navy & the Merchant Navy please?

Hi Debbatch,

the Merchant Navy is responsible for freight and their ships are unarmed and not used for war.

The Royal Navy are armed to the teeth and used in times of conflict.



I'm sorry the websites I suggested were of no help. I can't quite get over that you've searched all those other sites with no results. That's really odd as you'd think there'd be something. His Naval Records can't just have vanished, unless there's something in them that is "top secret"?!



The only other thing I can suggest is maybe a marriage certificate? Maybe a record of his service would be on that?



Good luck with it!



Sally

I have today spoken to the Medal Office who say that if i sent them a copy of this medals they MAY be able to locate all the seamen that were given medals at the same time & therefore find him. I do know that one of this medals is the same as an OBE is now, so he must of done something fitting to deserve a medal that high up.



I have also contacted the National Register office in London for a copy of his Birth & Death certificates.& the Royal Navy service duties (historial Dept) to see if they can shed any light on him.



on a good note i have made contact with his sisters daughter & hopefully she might have some more info for me



Anyway thank you for your help i do appreciate it



Deb

Deb, that's wonderful. I hope you can stop tearing our hair out now!

Let's hope they can shed a bit of light on the subject.

Good luck.



Sally