BOYS SERVICE, RN

[Hugh]

Hello Errol,
Can't add much.

HMS Victory - Flagship Portsmouth & RN Barracks from 1840 until 1974 then renamed HMS NELSON. There were also many other sub-names such as VICTORY I, II, III...etc at that time but they were mainly accounting bases.
HMS GANGES at Shotley, Ipswich from 1905 - 1976 trained Boy recruits from age 15. I joined there in February 1976 for basic training just before it closed in June of that year.

I would suspect he would have done his training at another establishment rather than HMS VICTORY.

Regards
Hugh

[Errol Chandler]

Hello Errol,
Can't add much.

HMS Victory - Flagship Portsmouth & RN Barracks from 1840 until 1974 then renamed HMS NELSON. There were also many other sub-names such as VICTORY I, II, III...etc at that time but they were mainly accounting bases.
HMS GANGES at Shotley, Ipswich from 1905 - 1976 trained Boy recruits from age 15. I joined there in February 1976 for basic training just before it closed in June of that year.

I would suspect he would have done his training at another establishment rather than HMS VICTORY.

Regards
Hugh

His Service Record seems to read: VICTORY 1

[Roger Dyer]

Hi Errol,

Thank you for sharing with us that brief but interesting account of your father's life. What a life, what a man. If ever there was a plot for a real life adventure story, that was it. Would have made a great book and movie,perhaps. Welcome aboard

................Roger

[happy daze john in oz]

Researching the family as we have been doing for the past 8 years throws up some surprizing facts, many of which have come as a bit of a shock can assure you.

[Ivan Cloherty]

Researching the family as we have been doing for the past 8 years throws up some surprizing facts, many of which have come as a bit of a shock can assure you.

Now John, aint that the truth, as old mum used to say "Let sleeping dogs lay" and "Curiosity killed the cat"

[j.sabourn]

Thats right Ivan all the skeletons start falling out of the cupboard. Didnt really know I had that many relations who where proper bastards. Cheers John Sabourn.

[Stuart Henderson]

I
grew up during the war and was fourteen March 1945. Was surrouded by uniforms when growing up during those during war years and my father was ex RN before during and after WW1
I aaplied for and joined Royal Marine Band in mid 1945, My father was against the idea my mother died earlier, I spent nearly two years as bandboy firstly in the IOM then Burford .Oxon. I was discharged as musically unsuitable in 1947 but loved the esprit de corps AND the uniform. Straightway after discharge applied to join Vindicatrix and MN and after a couple of fill in jobs joined later in 1847. Went on to spend thirty years in MN first ten years a variety of ships and companies pff the pool mainly to see the world and I did, Then Cunard for next fifteen years and rest CP,Panocean, trials work and BR ferries.
Boys service was a great platform in life for me, a good start in life which served me well (apart from musically ,,,,)
Stuart H

[Errol Chandler]

Does anyone have any information on:

RENFREW, an RN coal tender that was sold to the US Navy in 1918 and renamed the RIN TIN TIN ?

[Errol Chandler]

Hi Errol,

Thank you for sharing with us that brief but interesting account of your father's life. What a life, what a man. If ever there was a plot for a real life adventure story, that was it. Would have made a great book and movie,perhaps. Welcome aboard

................Roger

Hello Roger, A little more information has come to hand.
In 1918 Dad was apparently a civilian crew member on the US Navy transport ship SUSQUEHANNA (and most probably on the US Navy Lighter RIN TIN TIN.
The Susquehanna was used to transport American troops back to America after WW1 had ended. A ot of the voyages she did started in Brest, France.
The Susquehanna and other transports anchored outside the port and the troops were ferried out on lighter such as the 560ton Rin Tin Tin.
Apparently the US navy employed civilian crews signed in Europe for these vessels and about 2 million soldiers were carried home on a fleet of vessels used as transports.
I am now waiting for the crew lists from the US navy archives in Washington DC.
Attached are pictures of both these Rin Tin Tin No 1.jpgSusquehanna 1.jpgvessels.

[Errol Chandler]

It has been almost three years since I last added to the life story of my father. After many false starts I have finally managed to close a few gaps in his life.
As previously told I knew he was involved in Russia before, during and after the revolution, and that period included WW1.
After a lot of research, and following a suggestion made by one of the members of this forum (thank you, I am very grateful), I found a crew list (in a Canadian archive) that recorded that my father had been on the SS Hazel Dollar when she was under contract to the British and French governments in 1916-1918.
What had happened was this: In WW1 (just as in WW2) Germany was fighting on two fronts. In the west against Britain and France and in the east against Imperial Russia.
The Russians were poorly armed and their army was on the point of collapse due to the revolution.
The British and French knew that if Russia was beaten the Germans would switch their eastern front armies to the west quickly and defeat the British and French.
Desperate to keep the Russians fighting the British and French contracted with American armament manufacturers to produce huge quantities which were then shipped from Seattle to Vladivostok on four ships, one of which was the SS Hazel Dollar. I found my father on the crew list for the time. The shipments of arms were taken from Seattle to Vladivostok. Then gold bullion in payment was loaded and carried back across the Pacific to Vancouver. That was where all the British and French gold reserves were kept during WW1 because of fear that the Germans would capture it if they won WW1. Normally Hazel Dollar had a crew of 30+ on her Pacific voyages, but for these secret runs the crew was just eight men.... all agents assigned to protect the gold until it reached the bank vaults in Canada.
Hazel Dollar did four such crossings between 1916 and 1918.
Germany wanted to destroy the arms shipments and so cripple the Russians.
German agents in America were instructed to sabotage the Hazel Dollar by planting time-bombs on board to explode out in the Pacific. They did not succeed but did manage to blow up a munitions train and barge in Seattle docks, destroying much of the port.
If Hazel Dollar had been sunk in the Pacific I would not exist!
The arms shipments kept the Russians fighting until the USA entered the war and Germany was then defeated in 1918.
All the details can be found in a book called: 'The Enemy Within' by Captain Henry Landau. It is a history of the activities of German saboteurs in the USA in WW1.
If you search online you can find the book and read it online or print it.

So at last I found some proof of what my father was doing.
Prior to that it was more the faded memories of some he had spoken to, but not told them much at all.
Further proof then surfaced when I found (in Australia) an excerpt from a diary kept by a nephew of my father.
In it he records that 'Uncle Leslie journeyed in Russia and China in WW1'.

I have also found some long forgotten Chandler Family vaults at Nunhead Cemetery, Southwark, London.
On the massive marble obelisk that stands over the vaults are inscribed the names of a couple of dozen of my relatives that I never knew existed.
I have been researching them, that is why I have not been active on the forum for so long.
It has been a long haul and there is a lot more to go.
Errol.

- - - Updated - - -

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

HI Roger, I have today (29 June, 2015) added more, see below.