HMS Erin Crew Member

[hmserin]

Hi folks
I have a lovely miniature cannon made from the base of an old shell case. Its marked
J. Beaumont, AB HMS ERIN, 2ND BS GRAND FLEET
I am trying to trace any details of this person or living relatives so i can pass on the item. As far as i can see this is from the first world war. It would be great if anyone can help.

[stontamar]

Hi it is possible to trace the man through the Registry of Royal Navy Seamen maintained as on online record by The National Archive. See the link below.

That is the good news. The not so good news is that without the man's first name, or his service number or date of birth you would need to look through a number of service records to identify which man served on HMS ERIN as an AB during a specific time span.

HMS ERIN was serving with the 2nd Battle Squardon from 1915/16-1918 therefore your man must have been born before 1900. By searching against the name Beaumont, using birth dates ranging from 1870-1900, The National Archives lists a dozen or so records for seamen who had the initial 'J' in one of their Christian names. From the service record you should be able to trace the birth certicate, easy unless the man gave a false date and or place of birth, and then start the search for a marriage certificate, death certificate etc and then trace any decendents. By which time you are thorough immersed in the subject.

Why use the dates 1870-1900? A man born in 1870 would have been aged 45 in 1915 and if born in 1900 he would have been 18 in 1918. Both of these posibilities may be extreme in terms of likelyhood and it is most probable that the date of birth is somewhere in between.

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documentsonline/browse-refine.asp?CatID=15&searchType=browserefine&pagenumber=1&query=*&queryType=1

Hope this helps.

Regards

stontamar

[hmserin]

Hi thanks for the swift reply

The information you have given is great but how do i link any of the beaumonts to the ship. Is it a case that i need to visit the national archives and have a look at there records etc.

many thanks

[stontamar]

Hi hmserin

If the man served on HMS ERIN this draft will be listed on his service record sheet.

I'm afraid that if you do not have any further details of your man, other than AB J Beaumont, you only have three options - visit Kew yourself and sift through each possible service record, pay a researcher to sift through each record or order an on-line copy each record that meets the search criteria 'Beaumont' with a Chritian name starting with the letter 'J' and who was born at some time between, I would guess, '1870 amd 1900'.
Quite a tall order and may prove expensive if the search does not throw up an early match with an AB serving on HMS ERIN during the period 1915/16-18!

Sorry to bear bad news.

Merry Christmas to all.

Regards

stontamar