WW1 Royal Navy research - Halcyon, Tigress, Loyal

[HelenH]

Hello all,
I'm trying to find out more about my Grandfather's WW1 naval history and happily found my way to your site! I've only just started my research and am already a bit lost so any advice/ info you have would be very much appreciated.

My grandfather joined the royal navy in 1912 and served until 1917/19 (can't make out final figure unfortunately). Family history has it that he served in the Dardanelles on HMS Tigress and Loyal where he was twice mentioned in dispatches for conspicuous bravery. He was the captain's batman and apparently spent a night in the treading water holding up the captain after the ship was sunk. On another occassion the story goes that the ship he had been on went down with all hands, but that he had changed ships at his captain's request only the day before. We have a cigarette case given to him by a Captain T.A.G. Baker, but I haven't been able to find out more on him.

Having looked up his records raises a few puzzling things - neither the Loyal nor Tigress appears to have been sunk. One of the medals is from 1915 when he was on the Halcyon - am not clear which Halcyon this was. I hope you don't mind if I note done his service record and if anyone can help join the dots with the family stories above that would be really appreciated!

>March 1912 - March 1913: Vivid 1, King Alfred, Vivid 1, Lion (seems to have moved around a lot until the Lion)
>March 1913 - Aug 1914: Billerophon (Billersphon?), Vivid 1, Defiance
>Aug 1914 - Feb 1916: Halcyon
>Feb 1916 - Apr 1916: Vivid 1
>April 1916 - June 1916: Something I can't make out looks like Woolwick and in brackets after it Nomad and then repeated below with Tigress in brackets
>June 1916 - August 1917: Vivid 2
>Sept 1917 - Nov 1917: Apollo
>Nov 1917 - ?: Apollo and in brackets after it Loyal

Many thanks in advance!
Helen

[Peter4447]

Hi Helen
I will have to do a bit more digging but could the ship you say that was lost with all hands have been the destroyer 'Nomad' which was sunk at the Battle of Jutland on the 31st June 1916. Although she suffered less than 10 fatal casualties some of the crew finished up as Prisoners of War. The name 'Woolwich' would have been the Depot ship to which it was attached but if the name 'Nomad' appears in brackets this should have been the ship your Grandfather was serving in.
Regards
Peter4447

[HelenH]

Hi Peter,
Thanks so much for your reply! It could definitely be Woolwich - oddly in this case there are two ship entries on a single line but with 1 date. It reads like this:
Woolwich (Nomad)
" (Tigress) 13 April 16 30 June 16
Battle of Jutland takes me completely in another direction. Thank you so much for the suggestion and for the explanation of the depot ship issue. This really helps!
Best regards,
Helen

[Peter4447]

Thanks Helen.
HMS Woolwich was a destroyer depot ship at Harwich 1914 and then at Rosyth from 1915 to 1918.
HMS Loyal was a destroyer built in 1913 and sold in 1921.
HMS Apollo began life as a Minelayer but finished the war as a Depot Ship so it would appear Grandad was serving in the destroyer HMS Loyal from Nov 1917.
HMS King Alfred was a Drake Class Cruiser.
HMS Halcyon was a Torpedo Gunboat but fitted as a Minesweeper and appears to have served as such at Lowestoft from 1914 to 1918.
HMS Bellerophon was a Battleship Built 1907 and sold 1921. She was with the 4th Battle Squadron from 1914 to 1918,
HMS Lion was a Battle Cruiser Built 1910 and sold 1924.
Vivid 1 and Vivid 2 were, I believe, bases at Devonport with Vivid 2 being an Accounting Base.
HMS Tigress was an old Acheron Class destroyer.
You can find photos of several of these ships at www.battleships-cruisers.co.uk
Your Grandfather certainly put in a lot of seatime throughout the course of the First World War.
Kind regards
Peter4447(Thumb)

[elinge]

HMS Lion was the Admiral ship of the Admiral Beatty as leader of the Battle Cruisier Fleet in Jutlandia. There's heroic story about that fleet and her sacrifice...¿am I worried about that?

[elinge]

I think that the ship that mentioned Helen H could be one of the "HMS Tiger" who had the RN from 1900 to 1932. The first HMS Tiger was a destroyer, she was laid down in 1900 and sunk in 1908. She collisioned with the cruisier HMS Berwick.
The other HMS Tiger was a battle cruisier laid down in 1913 and sold for scrapping in 1932.

[HelenH]

Peter, Elinge,

Thank you both for all the information - you've given me a lot more to work with. The Tigress is puzzling as is the family story about the Dardanelles. I think I'll have to look into the Royal Navy dispatches records to try to find out more.

I hope you don't mind me attaching my grandfather's record from the UK National Archives in case you have any other ideas. His is at the bottom - Andrew McKeown. Its his son's (my uncle) 80th birthday this year and I'm hoping to surprise him (hopefully pleasantly!) with this research so any assistance is very, very much appreciated.

Best regards,
Helen

[HelenH]

Just one other question - I'm a bit surprised to find out that he served on so many ships during the war. Does anyone know if this was pretty normal or not? Would the fact that he was a Batman explain this?
Many thanks in advance.

[HelenH]

Hi again all,

Just wanted to update you that I couldn't wait for my uncle's birthday to share the information on his father's service record which you so kindly assisted me with. I have slightly run out of internet-based leads so I thought I'd send him a copy of my grandfather's ticket and the detail you were able to provide and see what more he could add to the bare bones of the story. (I think I need to read around the subject so if anyone can suggest any good maritime histories of the period that would be greatly appreciated).

He was absolutely thrilled and my mother was in tears so thank you for helping them fill in some blanks about their father. Neither knew that he had served on so many ships.

I thought you might be interested in some snippets from my uncle's response which were fascinating to me - hope they're of some interest to others...

"He didn't talk much about his time in the Navy, but I did hear the story about how he enlisted...They [his uncle and aunt as he was an orphan] blocked his attempt once before to join up because he was too young, so the next time he simply walked out...He signed up, was given a travel warrant to Devonport and "the King's shilling"...[Along the way] the train stopped at Crewe and a man came along the platform selling tea and cake. He gave the man his shilling, the train moved on and he never got the change." When he arrived at Devonport he learned how to swim "the hard way!"

Much later when he served on the minesweepers "on one occassion a mine broke loose and floated along the side of the ship, bumping its way as it did so. Everybody on board held their breath in case one of the horns on the mine would make contact with the ship...luckily it didn't."

He was finally discharged in the port of Dublin which at the time (1919) was still part of the UK, but of course by this point (after the Easter 1916 uprising) very "Home Rule" (just as the war for Independence from Britain was about to start). Having served in the Royal Navy my Grandfather (like many Irish WW1 servicemen probably) "had to run the gauntlet of the locals, verbally and physically, to get to the station for the journey home to Belfast...From that day until he died he nver set foot in the Republic of Ireland again."

On a lighter note one of the legacies of his navy service which my uncle remembers most was his ability to pack clothes without a single crease. Having served on at least one of his ships as the Captain's valet apparently throughout his life when he unpacked his suitcase or trunk "his clothes looked as if they'd been freshly ironed!!"

Anyway thought that might be of some interest, and just wanted to share my, and my family's, appreciation for all your help.

Best regards,
HelenH

[Peter4447]

Very many thanks for the update Helen it is appreciated and glad SN was able to assist.
Kind regards
Peter4447

[geoff Bennett]

Hi Helen
My Grandfather was in HMS Tigress and recieved some money from the RN prize fund for the destruction of the Braslau. Goeben and Brelau were two ships given to the ottoman empire to replace two ships requisitioned by the admiralty soon after completion on tyneside. The two ships escaped from the med under the noses of the RN and the commander was court martialled for it. Turkey entered WW1 on the german side soon after. Had it not been for this they might well have remained neutral. Loads about Goeben and Breslau on the net
happy searching. Geoff

[Dennis H]

Hello Peter 4447
In July last year you responded to a request from Helen H for information on HMS Halcyon operating out of Lowestoft in WW1. My father served on a minesweeper operating out of Lowestoft during the last few months of WW1. He was the ships radio operator and according to his service record he joined the ship on 25 Nov 1918 and left for demobilasation on 18 Feb 1919. I am trying to find out more details of the ship, and in your reply to Helen H you list the ship as a converted gunboat. Would you be able to say where you got the information so that hopefully I can follow it up further for my own satisfaction.
My apologies for the late response but I have only just started researching my father's WW1 service and only just joined this forum.

Hoping for some more information and good luck in your own researches

Dennis H