My family research has unearthed that my grt grt grt grandad who served as a coastguard for most of his life had a brief naval career, 1819- 1824 serving on two ships HMS Conqueror and HMS Cambrian. I have two questions. One he joined HMS Conqueror in 1819 but the ship at that time was guarding Napoleon on St Helena. would the navy send a new recruit to a ship 6000 miles away or just load him onto one in port at the time... his record shows him being 20 yrs old and joining as an able seaman. I am thinking could he have joined earlier as a 'boy' and they only started recording him when made an able seaman. the other query is regarding what he did for five years between 1824 and 1829 when he joined the coastguard service... is it common for naval ratings to go into merchant shipping for instance...only after suggestions as i know specifics would be very hard to find....oh his name was Robert William Bennett from Ipswich

You can get it cheaper on eBay

Thanks for your answers, if dad was still alive I would have gladly paid £45 for the medal as he was so proud of his service, but it's a bit expensive just for me and I do have all his others, as well as my granddad's WW1 medals.

I am compiling a PDF of his service and experiences plus photo's of his medals and some of him while serving, I will then pass them on to his grand and great grandchildren some of who never knew him.

Thanks yet again for your help.

I would suggest that you are misreading the entry - it is likely to be Mount Stewart

Mount Stewart was the naval unit established at Teignmouth in Devon: it served as the base for training men to serve in small craft and special duties

see: http://ww2talk.com/index.php?threads/hms-mount-stewart-teignmouth-devon.46092/

Drake is shore establishment is wild Swan in brackets

Regards

James

SS Service number is short Service and is 5 years plus 7 in reserves

Regards

James

Seaman were J
Stokers K

Regards

I would also get them mounted below is a photo of my gt uncles group with his arctic star

Regards

James

I think the timeframe to apply to the Maltese Government for the medal has long passed.  I understand that applicants will now be directed to Award Productions in Shrewsbury - it might be worth contacted them, see:

https://www.awardmedals.com/about-us/

For the medal mentioned:

https://www.awardmedals.com/malta-george-cross-medal

I would apply for his arctic star

YOU will need the form on the mod medal claim site.

I would also apply for his Malta GC 50th anniversary medal

Regards

James

I did apply and have since received the Arctic Star, as regards the Malta medal do you apply to the MOD or is it a Maltese award?

Hi all,

As part of my degree I am taking a module in maritime archaeology and as part of that a group of us a conducting a survey into some of the 'wrecks' located on the Forton Lake mud flats.

The pieces we are currently looking into are a series of connected floating structures that initially looked like they could have been floating walkways in a dock.  So far we have identified similar structures used at HMS Hornet during the second world war, specifically used alongside the surrendered German E-boats.

Here is an image of them in use from the IWM:


I have attached an image of a 3D model created of the pontoons in situ.

If anyone has any more knowledge and or photographs areound this it would be very much appreciated.

Many thanks,

Michael