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Thread: BOYS SERVICE, RN

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    Default BOYS SERVICE, RN

    Can anyone tell me about the history of the Royal Navy Boys Service, the training establishment/s etc.

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    Default Boys Service RN

    The only thing I know is in 1952 you could join the RN at 15 with the rating as Boy Seaman, I tried but parents would not sign application form. Dont know if they had any special training establishments, I assumed at the time would have been Portsmouth or Plymouth. Cheers John Sabourn.

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    Default Boys Service RN

    Thank you.
    I have my fathers service record No. L.1894 showing that he enrolled in the Boys Service on 18 May 1910, aged 17.
    The document is a little difficult to read (in parts) but I think it says he served at an establishment called Victory.
    I think this was a shore training base in Portsmouth.
    Apparently he went AWOL on 23 November 1910 and was not 'recovered' until 23 February 1912.
    So was on the run for about 16 months.
    I have found an entry from the 1911 census that recorded him at a Seaman's Hostel in Southampton on the census night, 2nd April 1911.
    No doubt he was keeping ahead of the cops by signing on to ships
    Then I think it says he was discharged and (handed?) over to the governor of Brixton Prison. What his punishment was, I have no idea.

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    I went to a barnados naval traing school at 11 with the intenion of joining RN but at 15 when I discovered that I had to sign a contract for either 12 years or 7 plus 5. I backed out and joined the merch.
    In those days(1950) the first destination at 15 was HMS ganges at shotley nr ipswich which was the RN traing school until about 17.
    Its probably closed down now but its worth googling
    hope this has helped
    john sutton

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    Thank you. The contract may well have been the reason he bailed out!
    Brixton (if that was where he went as punishment for going AWOL) did not seem to do him any harm.
    By 1914 he was at sea, sunk by torpedo twice very early in the war. Survived both after being presumed dead.
    He had been educated in Russia for about 10 years before trying the RN so, because he was fluent in Russian, was back in Russia in the British Foreign Service at various British diplomatic posts all over Russia for the rest of the war and throughout the Russian Revolution............... and having a rather 'boys own adventure' life in those very turbulent times.
    Got a gong for his exploits on behalf of King and country.

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    Errol!!!, please tell us more, if you can. Your father, it seems, led a very
    interesting life as a young man. I feel sure the members would be keen to
    learn more, I know I would.

    ..........Roger
    Last edited by Roger Dyer; 8th September 2012 at 05:11 AM.

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    Thank you for your interest.
    Dad (Clement Leslie Chandler) was born in Wales on 4th June 1893.
    I, my 4 brothers and 1 sister, always believed him to be Welsh and to have lead a very ordinary life without anything notable at all.
    I always supported Wales at International rugby, despite having been born in South Africa myself!
    It was only last year that I decided to do a family tree, and that was when everything that we had believed was turned on its head.
    I began to unearth a life story that left us utterly gobsmacked.
    My research revealed that his father (my grandfather) was an engineer that worked for the the family firm of Kirkham, Hulett & Chandler.
    They were manufacturers of huge, clunky Victorian machines that extracted noxious chemicals from coal gas....in other words they were pioneers in the cleaner air movement and health and safety industry.
    These machines were sold and installed all over the world. (I have attached a couple of pictures of the machines).
    Grandfather was involved in the installation and commissioning of the machines in Russia.
    The only reason he had been in Wales was to install machines there, met his future wife, and my father Clement Leslie was born in Wales.
    They moved back to London and I have discovered in the archives an admission record from Stockwell College showing that Dad was enrolled there on 11th October 1897, aged 4 yr & 4 mths. The record show that he was only there for 10 days, leaving on 21st Oct. 1897.
    That was when the family moved to Russia (Kiev, in the Ukraine), because grandfather was sent there to represent the firm to sell and install the machines.
    Dad went to the international school in Kiev.
    He was there for about 10 to 12 years and became very fluent in Russian, learnt the Cossack dance (squatting, arms folded across chest and kicking feet forward) and picked up many Russian habits....such as only ever drinking tea out of a tall glass!
    The only un-Russian thing was that he was a teetotaller all his life.
    Then came the joining of the Boys Service RN in May 1910. Going AWOL less than 6 mths later and being on the run from the Navy & the cops for the next 16 months....other than being recorded on the 1911 census in the Seaman's Hostel, Southampton... not a trace of him.....presumed to be at sea.
    WW1 starts and he is almost immediately in two sinking by U boats. Presumed dead on both occasions, survives in lifeboats before being rescued. Suffers some slight eye injury. The authorities find that they have a young man of about 20 that is completely fluent in Russian and has lived there for 10 years. He is quickly snaffled by the powers that be and is not allowed to return to sea.
    Russia is in turmoil as the war with Germany is being fought while at the same time the revolution is starting and Russian armies are starting to refuse to fight the Germans, meaning that the Germans are better able to fight in the West against the Brits and French. The Brits are desperate to keep Russia 'on side', so they get busy sabotaging rail lines between Russia and Germany and generally creating havoc on the front lines between the Russian and German armies in order to provoke the Russians into fighting on against Germany.
    Dad is in one of these sabotage teams destroying railways, bridges and docks.... and is also working as a courier carrying diplomatic pouches for the British Foreign Service.
    The revolution hots up and the Bolsheviks start to cause chaos. It is decided to extract all foreign diplomats, westerners and some members of the Russian aristocracy. The British and US governments set up teams of agents to mount the rescue missions and Dad is in a joint British/US team sent from San Francisco to Vladivostok in 1917 to locate and find the people. They land in Vladivostok, gather together the refugees but then cannot sail out of Vladivostok because the British, US, Japanese, Russian and German navies are fighting sea battles in the area. This is because the Royal Navy had landed huge amounts of arms and ammo at Vladivostok, previously bought by the Tsar and to be paid for in gold bullion that was being sent from Moscow to Vladivostok. It never got there and everyone wanted to seize the arms and ammo...so the various navies were trying to grab it or to stop anyone else getting it. The only route out for the rescuers and refugees is along the Trans-Siberian Railway across Siberia. So that is the route they take. The railway is under attack from Bolsheviks and various warlords that are taking advantage of the situation. After many weeks of fighting they eventually reach Bergen in Norway,a journey of abut 6,500 miles. From there the RN picked them up and transported them to Aberdeen, Scotland.
    Dad returned to the war zones in Russia on a few more missions.... sabotage and/or rescue.
    On 16th December 1918 the records show that he was issued with a British Merchant Seaman's Identity certificate (No. 383619) and signed on to the Llanstephan Castle. However, although the document has his photograph and the correct name and address of his parents as next of kin, the holder is identified as: Basil Clement Leeke LEARY-CHANDLER.
    As his birth certificate calls him Clement Leslie CHANDLER, that ID certificate is a fabrication using only some elements of reality.
    It is a mystery that I have not been able to solve and must assume it is something to do with his time as an agent/diplomatic courier.
    Every attempt to ask the Foreign Office is rebuffed under the 100 year rule and the latest rebuff carried a rider to the effect that the files will probably remain sealed for a further 50 or more years.... basically they told me to bugger off.
    He was given an award, but even that is classified.
    So there you have most of it.
    He eventually settled in East London, South Africa, where he met my mother and they married in 1935. At that time he was with Union Castle on the South African mail run. They had 6 children. 4 of us survive. My sister died 10 years ago and my second eldest brother died a month ago. I am the youngest boy. I live in Somerset. The others in South Africa and Botswana.

    He never spoke about those years and what little did slip out he always dismissed as not being at all worth talking about.
    We always thought our Dad was a rather mild man that had never done anything exciting in his life.
    He died in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, on 30 November 1957.
    I hope the pictures all come through.
    The one of him is from 1937, in East London, South Africa.
    Kirkham, Hulett & Chandler No. 1.jpgKirkham, Hulett & Chandler No. 2.jpgDad enhanced pic. L C Chandler 37.jpg
    Last edited by Errol Chandler; 8th September 2012 at 09:43 AM. Reason: spelling

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    Default neville

    A very interesting story of the life of your grand Dad and father , most of us never think of what our parents did or went through ,as almost all of them never gave us details of thier lives .

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    Yes. It is always too late to ask. I deeply regret not having known him for longer, I was 13 when he died.

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    Default Interesting people

    Errol there are many interesting people who we would never think of as such. I have a neighbour who I thought was a bit of a nuisance. Was stone deaf and had to lip read,was married to a Singaporean lady who did not speak english too well but tries to have some input to the conversations. He was having a bit of trouble with some of the Dick heads in the council and asked me to help him. In short I spent some time with him and discovered his past history. What I could gather he was originally Estonian and shortly after the war escaped from said country as believe was occupied by the Russians at that time. He came out as a stowaway on a trawler he must have been about 14 I think at the time. Finished up in th NE of England close to where I used to live, a Family took him in. He must have joined the RAF and finished up with a flying commission with same. Was involved in later years with an airplane crash and lost most of his hearing. Much later was on his way to join a Monastery in the Far East somewhere but met his present wife on ship and changed his lintended life style and finally settled in Australia. It is very difficult to converse with him unfortuanetly due to him being stone deaf. We sometimes go out as a family party as his wife knows all the best chinese cuisine and places to go. We are all getting old ourselves but we see others without realizing their past experiences in life. This man however has an extremely high regard for the United Kingdom and would put me to shame as regards loyalty to the same. He obviously remembers it as it was then. It is a shame That I cannot get into deeper conversations with him. One can never discount people by appearance and what one thinks by first impressions. Your family would at the time have been in the stage where they didnt want to impose on anyone and kept their individual lifes to themselves. We all in our own way live life as we see it and dont think too much about it. It is good that you have found out about your family. Regards John Sabourn.

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