Discharge Book numbering from WW 2 to 1972 for British seamen

[Geoff Earle]

I've done some 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.
Typical numbers issued for various years are

1940 R 217400
1943 R 230000
1945 R 310000
1956 R 658000
1965 R 816000
1972 ??? Was R prefix still used at this time.

I would be grateful for feedback on whether these numbers look reasonable and also for some information on the numbers issued around 1972.
thanks
David Snook

Hi David

My number was R 747082, issued March 1961

Regards Geoff Earle

[Nigel cox]

October 1970 R892811 nigel cox

[Michael Jobson]

1960 started with R73.... if that helps anyone! R4 must have been much earlier.

[Barnsley Sloan]

R791716 (Year 1964)

[Brett Hayes]

Unfortunately, my discharge-book, issued in Aug/Sept. 1968, has long been ‘lost’, but its no. was: R863743.
Brett Hayes, EDH.

[Mike Alexander]

I've done some 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.
Typical numbers issued for various years are

1940 R 217400
1943 R 230000
1945 R 310000
1956 R 658000
1965 R 816000
1972 ??? Was R prefix still used at this time.

I would be grateful for feedback on whether these numbers look reasonable and also for some information on the numbers issued around 1972.
thanks
David Snook

Hi David mine is R711908 issued 4 September 1959 Mike Alexander

[Colin Howard Thompson]

I was issued with the older style Discharge book in 1971 R904205 when I was an Eng Cadet at SSMTC. It was replaced with the newer style without the character references a year, later berore I had any entries in it.

[Keith Wharton]

Hello, if it’s of any help, my discharge book UK000622 was issued 26 March 73 in Grimsby so it tallies that the UK numbers started earlier that year if it was a national sequence rather than blocks of numbers allocated to different regional M.M. offices.
Regards, Keith

[J Gowers]

Hi Guys,
Just came across this thread my book was issued on 22nd Jan 1974 UK003715, I joined Denholms as Junior Engineer after serving a mechanical apprentice with the Ministry of Defence. I later went offshore on drilling rigs as C/E, Jack Ups, Semi-subs and drillships, and ended up with three books

[John Weedon]

Mine is R 639546 issued Dec 1955.

Mine is UK004908, from March 12th 1973.