Discharge Book numbering from WW 2 to 1972 for British seamen

[Hugh]

I think you will find the title of the forum is Dis A numbering from WW2 to 1972 and is intended to reflect on living seamen and identifying themselves with their number.
I doubt that the number quoted belong to the poster in any event, but as always I stand to be corrected

Hi Ivan,
I don't think that the intention of the thread was ever to identify living seamen. It was originally started by David Snook who was doing research on Discharge Books and Discharge A numbers from WW2 to 1972 to try and get an idea of the turnover of British seamen over the period by asking for various Dis.A numbers allocated to seamen through the decades. He could then get an idea of the numbers of books issued to seamen.

The number quoted by Ken Atkinson for Robert Richard Atkinson is correct for R.R. Atkinson b.1914 with a Dis.A issued in 1937.

Regards
Hugh

[Ivan Cloherty]

Yes Hugh I understand and you know that I have great and enduring respect for your expertise, but I do think that 1914 is outside the scope of WW2 and post WW2, so would not help the statistics in any way, just an observation.

[Hugh]

No worries Ivan.
I think the relevant fact here is the issue of the Dis.A which was in 1937 and as Dis books were issued in blocks to MMO's, I think it is also good to have figures for comparison purposes just prior to the war. No doubt the seaman served in WW2 and beyond. It is also interesting to note, at least for me, is that his Dis A. was issued around the same time as my own father's was allocated in Glasgow but there is a 20,000 difference in the numbers which is down to the batch allocation to MMO's and the take up of books.

Regards
Hugh