Can I ask a question ? ........ I know there is a card index for the BWM and Mercantile Marine War Medal at Kew on microfiche and I heard there are only service records from 1918 .... but I also heard that records for the Mercantile Marine are in Southampton and Newfoundland ! ......... why Newfoundland ? The Mercantile Marine War Medal, which was awarded by the British government (the Board of Trade), was given to prior recipients of the British War Medal who had served at sea during the First World War and had sailed through dangerous waters. Also eligible for the medal were those men who had served at sea for at least six months from the outbreak of war in August 1914 until the armistice of November 1918. Typically pilots and crews of post office ships and lighthouse authority vessels received the Mercantile Marine War Medal. The medal was instituted in 1919, made of bronze and 36mm in diameter. No additional Bars were available. The effigy of King George V adorned the obverse of the medal; on the reverse was a merchant ship sailing through difficult waters, an enemy submarine lurking in the background. The words For War Service / Mercantile Marine / 1914-1918 were printed across three lines.
Hello Annie, In 1966 the National Archives in London [Public Record Office] took the decision to discard part of the “Registrar General of Shipping and Seamen, the Agreements and Account of Crew and Official Logbooks” for British Empire vessels from 1861 to1913. The decision met with considerable opposition from archivists and maritime and labour historians; these records were considered to be a valuable and largely untapped source of information on seafaring labour and the shipping industry in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Eventually, through the co-operative effort of a number of individuals, the disposition of the Crew Agreements was settled, with the bulk of the records being transferred to Memorial University's Maritime History Archive (MHA). You are correct in that there are no surviving Mercantile Marine records of service for the First World War. The Central Index Register of Merchant Seamen 1913 - 1941, effectivley 1919 - 1941, is held in Southampton, but approx 70% of British Empire vessels official logbooks and crew agreements are now held by the Memorial University's Maritime History Archive (MHA) in NewFoundland. Regards Hugh
Thanks Hugh .... that explains a lot !! I've perused the Maritime History Archive many times for earlier ships records but I didn't realise that they had the more recent records ... I need to look a little more ! Annie
