Investigating the Royal Naval Reserve & the matter of prize money

QI have a copy of my grandfather’s records with the Royal Naval Reserve and some of the entries are puzzling me. He received what seems to be large sums of money for that time.

He was Hugh Morrison No. S.A.700

I understand that an entry for 11/11/19 – W.G. £20-10-0 may be War Gratuity, but the following entries are puzzling me:

19 Aug. 1920 £37-10-0

22 Sept. 1922 £56-5-0

24 Sept. 1923 £7-10-0

He was working as a tug boat master at the Grimsby Naval Base from September 1920 until it was closed in March 1922. The 1921 Census reveals he was working at the Admiralty Dockyard, Immingham, when his occupation was described as ‘fisherman, tug boat man’. This is understandable as the two ports are close to each other on the Humber. Joyce Billings

AIn those days the Royal Naval Reserve (RNR) consisted of professional seamen and had been in existence since 1859. Hugh Morrison was in that part known as the Patrol Service (or trawler section) which came into existence during WW1, later resurrected for WW2.

About the Royal Naval Patrol Service

The RNPS (Royal Naval Patrol Service) consisted mainly of fishermen whose civilian experience made them ideally suited to operating trawlers and similar vessels, principally for minesweeping and anti-submarine work. My family were fishermen in the 19th and early 20th centuries and two lost their lives in ships manned by the RNPS.

The ranks of RNPS ratings were generally the same as those of the RN but the rank of Second Hand (effectively the Mate) and the warrant rank of Skipper existed only in the RNR. Badges of rank and insignia varied over time but typically a Chief Skipper would have one standard ½˝ RNR style wavy stripe as for a Sub Lieutenant and a Skipper, as Hugh became in December 1917, one thinner ¼˝ RNR style stripe as for a warrant officer. For a while three horizontal buttons were worn below the stripe.

Discipline was less formal than in the regular navy or its other reserves and reflected the realities of small ship life. Hugh’s rank as a Skipper is shown as temporary, as was typically the case for all those who joined the reserves just for the war.

War Gratuities

War gratuities were introduced in December 1918 and the amount depended on rank and length of service. The most useful information I have been able to find in is Hansard https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/ commons/1942/feb/17/gratuities-1914-1918 The reply from the Minister refers mainly to the Army but the Navy and Air Force would have had similar arrangements.

There was a minimum sum according to rank and then an increment based on the length of service between 4 August 1914 and 3 August 1919, typically 10/- per month for overseas service which would include service at sea.

Unfortunately the quality of the scan of Hugh’s service record (not shown) is not good although this may be because the original rubber stamp where the three payments are shown was not correctly inked and only partly transferred to the page. The only word I can clearly discern in the box relating to the sums you mention is ‘money’. That suggests to me that the missing prefix is either ‘prize’ or ‘salvage’.

Prize money

I think the former more likely as the Naval Prize Act of 1918 changed the system of payment of prize money from one where it went to the ship responsible for capturing the prize to one of payment into a central pool which was then distributed amongst the fleet after the war.

My great-grandfather’s correspondence with the Admiralty about prize money has survived. He was commissioned as a Temporary Lieutenant RNVR (Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve) in May 1917, aged nearly 62, and was in command of motor launches until demobbed in September 1919. He received prize money payments in December 1922 and February 1924 which is broadly consistent with the period in which Hugh received the unidentified payments.

TNA has some files which might reveal further interesting information. There is an RNPS museum in Lowestoft. DF