Description
Object description
British signaller served aboard HMS Iron Duke in GB coastal waters, 3/1914-2/1917; served aboard HMS Queen Elizabeth in GB coastal waters, 2/1917-9/1917; served aboard submarines HMS C4 and HMS D4 in GB coastal waters, 9/1917-11/1918
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Edington and Blandford Forum, GB, 1897-1913: family circumstances; education; employment as telegraph boy; reasons for joining Royal Navy at Southampton, 2/1913. Aspects of training as boy seaman aboard HMS Powerful at HMS Impregnable, Devonport and HMS Ganges, Shotley, GB, 2/1913-3/1914: daily training routine aboard HMS Powerful; educational classes; difficulty in passing swimming test; lectures; nature of training ship HMS Powerful and shore establishment HMS Impregnable; training as boy signaller at HMS Ganges, Shotley; nature of subsequent training as submariner at HMS Dolphin, Gosport, 9/1917.
REEL 2 Continues: opinion of swimming instructor; uniform including question of personal adaptations; wearing straw hat; kit inspections; cleaning brasswork and scrubbing decks aboard HMS Powerful. Recollections of period as boy signaller and signaller aboard HMS Iron Duke, 3/1914-2/1917, HMS Queen Elizabeth, 2/1917-9/1917 and submarines HMS C4 and HMS D4 in GB coastal waters, North Sea and English Channel, 9/1917-11/1918: duties as boy signaller aboard HMS Iron Duke.
REEL 3 Continues: duties as signaller aboard submarines HMS C4 and HMS D4 including role when surfaced, use of hydrophone before surfacing and operating wireless; role operating diving planes when submerged; question of 'spit and polish'; recharging submarine batteries; relations between specialist ratings, seamen, stokers and marines.
REEL 4 Continues: food; comparison of messdecks aboard training ship HMS Powerful and HMS Iron Duke; absence of fresh food, sleeping arrangements, toilets, lack of washing facilities, air quality and relations between crew aboard submarines; gambling including running fixed games of 'Crown and Anchor' with loaded dice; question of incidence of homosexuality; rations and messing systems.
REEL 5 Continues: rations and messing systems; meals; 'cooks of mess'; canteens; rum ration; nature of discipline.
REEL 6 Continues: opinion of Royal Navy police and attack by stoker on master-at-arms aboard HMS Iron Duke; relations with officers; story of 'round robin' complaints over shore leave on Black Island and issue of 'beer tickets' whilst aboard HMS Iron Duke; refusal of offer to become officer; nature of relations on lower deck; religious services and role of chaplain.
REEL 7 Continues: naval regattas at HMS Impregnable; boxing matches; reputation of HMS Queen Elizabeth; shore leave in Portsmouth including prevalence of prostitutes, venereal disease; theatre visits, nature of pubs, drinking habits and Aggie Weston's Sailors' Rest Home.
REEL 8 Continues: use of Salvation Army hostel in Portsmouth; question of adequacy of pay; appendicitis attack and treatment from civilians during train journey to Royal Hospital Haslar, Gosport; recieving socks from Lady Jellicoe Appeal Fund; commissioning and sea trials of HMS Iron Duke, 3/1914-6/1914; coaling ship; Spithead Review, 7/1914; outbreak of First World War and arrival of Admiral John Jellicoe aboard HMS Iron Duke, 8/1914.
REEL 9 Continues: move up to Scapa Flow; submarine patrols using motorboats outside of Scapa Flow; recreational activities and leave; state of crew morale; submarine alarms; acting as lookout in foretop aboard HMS Iron Duke during Battle of Jutland, 31/5/1916-1/6/1916; rescue of survivors from RFA Maine off Isle of Mull, 17/6/1914; patrols aboard submarine HMS D4 in North Sea and reports of loss of submarine HMS D3, 12/3/1918; story of sinking of German submarine UB-72, 12/5/1918, including surfacing to recharge batteries, sighting UB-72, exchange of torpedoes and sinking of UB-72; question of failure to pick up survivors; view of surrender of German fleet whilst attached to destroyer in harbour at Bremen, Germany, 11/1918, including boarding submarine Deutschland (U-155), reaction to hoisting white ensign and comparison of British and German submarines.
REEL 10 Continues: Aspects of period as civilian in GB, 1919-1939: post-war career: question of employment; absence of comradeship in Royal Navy; attempt to re-enlist during Second World War; acclimatisation to civilian lifestyle.