The Naval Service Record of
WILLIAM MITCHELMORE
The following information is mainly based on William MITCHELMORE's service record, obtained from the UK National Archives (Records of the Admiralty, Naval Forces, Royal Marines, Coastguard and related bodies, ADM188/186). Additional information has been kindly provided by Richard Taylor, Secretary of the Naval Historical Collectors and Research Association.
|
7 Jan 1886 |
William joins the Royal Navy as a Stoker 2nd Class under the Official Number 135962, signing on for 12 years continuous service. He states1 that he was born on 19 May 1864 at Wallycombe, Dartmouth, Devon. William is said to be 5 ft 5ΒΌ in tall, with dark hair, grey eyes and a ruddy complexion. His previous occupation is given as labourer. His
first posting is to HMS
|
| 20 May 1886 |
Posted to the battleship and training ship HMS Agincourt at Chatham Dock. |
| 20 Oct 1886 | Promoted to Stoker. |
| 29 Oct 1886 | Returns to HMS Indus at Devonport. |
| 10 Mar 1887 | Posted to the 950-ton torpedo gunvessel HMS Landrail.
(HMS Landrail was lauched at Devonport in 1886 and sunk in 1906 in Lyme Bay, where she had been used as a target ship. She was on the West Coast of Africa 1887-1889 and with the Mediterranean Fleet 1889-93, being recommissioned at Malta in 1890.2) |
| 7 Jan |
Granted first Good Conduct Badge (three years' service). |
| 25 Jun 1889 | Recorded as a mariner on his marriage certificate. |
| 18 Jun 1890 | Returns once again to HMS Indus at Devonport. |
| 1 Oct 1890 | Posted to the training ship HMS Brittania moored in Dartmouth harbour. |
| 24 Feb 1891 | Promoted to Leading Stoker. |
| 5 Apr 1891 | Recorded in the census of Dartmouth St Petrox as a leading stoker aboard the HMS Brittania. |
| 7 Jan 1894 | Granted second Good Conduct Badge (eight years' service). |
| 9 Jul 1891 | Returns to the Devonport depot (now renamed HMS Vivid II). |
| 21 Jul 1892 | Returns to HMS Brittania. |
| 1 Apr 1893 | Promoted to Leading Stoker 1P. |
| 2 Nov 1893 | Returns to HMS Vivid II. |
| 29 Apr 1894 | Posted to the despatch vessel HMS Alacrity, serving mainly on the China Station. |
| 27 Oct 1895 | Posted to HMS Pembroke II, part of the naval base at Chatham. |
| 16 Jan 1896 | Invalided out of the service with synovitis of the wrist. |
| 24 Jan 1896 | Granted a service pension. |
Notes
1. Other information we have on William Arthur MITCHELMORE indicates that he was born in the third quarter of 1865 in Torquay, so it is possible that this is not his service record at all. However, there is no record of any William MITCHELMORE born in 1864 in Dartmouth. William Arthur may well not have gone to school and probably did not possess a birth certificate. So an error of a year or so in his birthday is not conclusive, and since William had lived in Dartmouth for most of his childhood he may well have believed that was where he was born. No "Wallycombe" has been found in Dartmouth; it may have been the name of the house where he was living at the time he signed up.
2. See Devonport-Built Warships Since 1860 by Lt-Cdr K V Burns, published by Maritime Books in 1981.