Seeking Ww1-era Merchant Navy clues
QMy query concerns maritime history, particularly the Merchant Navy. My great-uncle was Captain Walter Gordon Harrison, born 5 January 1888. He had a very distinguished career in the Second World War. He rescued 3,000 to 4,000 troops from St. Nazaire and having got them safely back to England, he returned to the French coast unescorted to check whether or not there were more troops who needed rescuing. That time he was Master of Glenafric.
In June 1942 he was Master of Troilus, one of just two ships to reach Malta with Operation Harpoon, the other being Orari.
I have a great deal of official documentation about both these events, including some quite secret papers. He was awarded Lloyd’s War Medal for his part in Operation Harpoon and also a CBE. I am very proud of him as you can imagine and I remember him as a little girl, as a very kind gentle man.
The reason for this letter is I am wondering whether you could help me find what he did in the First World War. He must have been old enough to serve, but I have not found anything to help me.
Sally Ramshaw
AResources on the mainstream genealogy websites
On The Genealogist website www.thegenealogist.co.uk you can search Merchant Navy apprentice records. This shows that Walter G Harrison, born 1888, signed up for a four year apprenticeship with shipping line Iredale and Porter in 1905, and he completed it in 1909. So he was an active Merchant Navy employee by the time that WW1 commenced.
Sadly, many the Merchant Navy employment records for the First World war were destroyed in the 1960s. However, there are a number of sources that may help you fill in the gaps.
I am going to assume that you have looked without success at any obituaries, the Merchant Navy masters’ and mates’ certificates on Ancestry, and the Merchant Navy employment records on Findmypast. All of these can give clues to WW1 service.
As far as online records are concerned, a good place to start for WW1 Merchant Navy service is the 1915 Crew List database https://1915crewlists.rmg.co.uk/ This is an index to all the Merchant Navy personnel serving on ships in 1915, derived from crew lists that survive for that year. However, a Walter Harrison of the right age and origin is not to be found. Even more curiously, Walter is not recorded as receiving any WW1 Merchant Navy campaign medals www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ help-with-your-research/research-guides/merchantseamens-campaign-medal-records-1914-1918/ These two facts together tend to suggest that Walter did not serve with the Merchant Navy during the war.
Where else might Walter have served?
The most likely alternative places for a Merchant Navy officer to serve in WW1 were the Royal Naval Reserve (RNR) or the Royal Naval Division (RND). The TNA Research Guides for these services allow a search for named personnel, and Walter is not listed for either of them. He could potentially have served with the Royal Navy too, but again no service record seems to be listed https://royalnavyrecordsww1.rmg.co.uk/
At the outset of WW1, Walter was 26 years old and probably already at least a middle-ranking ship’s officer. Lloyd’s Captains’ Register records all foreign voyages of officers ranked second mate or above and this may tell you what he did between 1914 and 1918, but you need to visit London Metropolitan Archives to see it.
Was he interned?
However, two potential solutions to this riddle are most likely to yield results, I feel. The first is that Walter was imprisoned by the enemy. WW1 broke out suddenly and many Merchant Navy employees found themselves trapped in German ports; they were promptly arrested and detained for the duration of the war. The MT9 Project website lists many Merchant Navy prisoners https:// spw-surrey.com/mt9/ as does the Red Cross archive https:// grandeguerre.icrc.org/ Look through these, but note that neither is complete. Other sources include series FO383 at TNA, and Lloyd’s Captains’ Register may note his being ‘interned’.
Did he join the Army?
The second possibility is that Walter decided to join the Army when hostilities were declared, rather than a seagoing service. I notice that there are a lot of Walter Harrisons who served with the British Army in WW1, but only six Walter G Harrisons that received WW1 campaign medals https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ help-with-your-research/research-guides/british-army-medalindex-cards-1914-1920/ Two of them died, so you could start by investigating the remaining four men. SW