Unable to read service record (for the most part) Robert Strachan

[Nathan Strachan]

Hello,

I've recently found my great-grandfathers service record and I'm having a hard time deciphering a lot of it.

From what I Gather he was stationed at "Pembroke II" and "Colleen" as I understand these are Stone Frigates.

Faintly above these two I see "HT Daisy" or "HS Daisy" that he possibly trained on in 1919. I know that HT Daisy WAS a trawler at this time with the registration being attributed to fraserburgh (FR) Hometown of my great-grandfather and subsequently the Strachan line to date.

If anyone could help with reading it and finding out a bit more about where he was stationed/ if he was ever on a boat, it would be greatly appreciated. I'm just at a bit stumped!

I have attached a PDF copy of the service record.BT-377-7-132569 Robert Strachan.pdf

Thank you,
Nathan Strachan

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Hi Nathan
When some of our researchers see this they will be onto it, Hugh and Marion are two of the best in the business.
Cheers Des

[Doc Vernon]

Hello Nathan
From the little that i know of the RN, and what i can read /

HMS Pembroke was the name given to a shore barracks at Chatham. It was commissioned in 1878, moved ashore in 1903 and was paid off in 1983

Two ships of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Colleen:

• HMS Hawk was a coastguard gunboat launched in 1869. She was renamed HMS Amelia in 1888, HMS Colleen in 1905, HMS Colleen Old in 1916, HMS Emerald in 1918 and HMS Cuckoo later in 1918 before being sold in 1922.

• HMS Royalist was a Satellite-class corvette launched 1883. She was hulked as a depot ship in 1900, renamed HMS Colleen in 1913 and transferred to the Irish Free State in 1923. She was scrapped in 1950.

HMS Royalist (1883) - Wikipedia

It says Mobilised before Training Undergone , possibly that means what it reads to me that yes he did serve on the two Ships but Hugh will confirm i am sure when he manages to get back online with his Puter!
Heard from Billy that its fixed but has still got to be updated. ??
Cheers

Not to confuse the issue but i see there are other such names as well, are they related or ??
Search results: Robert Strachan Aberdeen | The National Archives Free downloads must be registered at the NA.

[Nathan Strachan]

Thanks so much, this is fantastic! Looking forward to what Hugh can uncover too.

I was almost convinced that HMS Colleen was a reference to the Irish stone frigate, but I'm useless!

Yes there are a fair few Robert Strachan's, but this one is for sure my great granda's, due to the address, birth place and short stature! (also loved the noting of "Fresh" under complexion. ha!

Thanks again!

Thanks again

[Hugh]

Thanks so much, this is fantastic! Looking forward to what Hugh can uncover too.
I was almost convinced that HMS Colleen was a reference to the Irish stone frigate, but I'm useless!

Don't doubt yourself Nathan,

Naval records can be quite confusing - mostly, those records show the shore base that handled the ship's account (Accounting Base). The base will have a nominal Depot Ship in this case (HMS ROYALIST) which also took the name HMS COLLEEN.
HMS COLLEEN was an Auxiliary Patrol base at Cobh, Ireland and amongst other things handled RN ML patrol boats.
HMS PEMBROKE was the Chatham RNB - Royal Naval Barracks but there were smaller accounting bases such as PEMBROKE I and II.

What I can see is that he was mobilised 27 April 1915 and joins the hired trawler DAISY without completing his basic training - the record does not indicate how long he was aboard DAISY. I can't be sure yet which DAISY he was serving in as there were a few but I have it down to two.

Regards
Hugh

[Doc Vernon]

Would this help at all Hugh?

Crew List Index Project

[Hugh]

Hi Vernon,
Yes, I have checked that already as you can see a fair few daisies
Nathan seems to have an answer here

https://www.greatwarforum.org/topic/...culty-reading/

Regards
Hugh

[Doc Vernon]

Hello Hugh
Thanks for that, and i was just trawling the Net, not that this has much to do with the questions on this Thread but thought it was really an informative site to keep for future references> Do you have this at all, if not it may help you as well??
Cheers

Royal Navy and Naval History World War 1, 1914-1918 (naval-history.net)

[Hugh]

Do you have this at all, if not it may help you as well??

That site is a great resource and it is great to see that it is still online even though its creator Gordon Smith passed away in 2016, I am sure it was a labour of love and it is a great credit to him. To those who keep it online - thank you!

I have been using that site for as long as I have been a member of this site and it has been helping me for about 19 years or so now.

Regards
Hugh