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Personnel => Royal Navy => Topic started by: Snowy79 on 15 April 2021 11:39:56 am

Title: Help with granddad's service number M.X118026
Post by: Snowy79 on 15 April 2021 11:39:56 am

Hello all
Hope someone can steer me in the right direction
I wrote off to Whale Island for my late granddad's service record
They sent me an acknowledgment but said due to covid in could be 6 months before I hear anything substantive

On the letter there is a reference next to his name of M.X 118026

Is this his service number? It doesn't say so explicitly anywhere. I am careful not to make assumptions as I am wanting to get a stone made up for a veterans walkway at our local war memorial and the deadline is soon

Thanks all

S

Title: Re: Help with granddad's service number M.X118026
Post by: PhiloNauticus on 15 April 2021 03:33:20 pm

Yes, MX/118026 is an RN Service Number

Title: Re: Help with granddad's service number M.X118026
Post by: Snowy79 on 15 April 2021 03:53:04 pm

Thanks PO

Do you just know from the format?

Title: Re: Help with granddad's service number M.X118026
Post by: PhiloNauticus on 16 April 2021 09:57:42 am

Yes.    For an explanation of how RN service numbers worked, see:

https://www.genuki.org.uk/big/NavalNumbers

M indicates Miscellaneous branches (electrical, supply etc)   He would also have had a Port letter (P, C D etc before that, but these did sometimes change if they shifted homeports

Title: Re: Help with granddad's service number M.X118026
Post by: Snowy79 on 16 April 2021 11:07:02 am

That's brilliant, thanks mate :) the M makes sense as he was a shipwright serving on a repair ship patching up damaged ships operating in the south pacific in wW2