HMS Assistance - Merchant or Royal Navy

Discussion in 'The War at Sea' started by Andrea31, May 15, 2020.

  1. Andrea31

    Andrea31 Member

    Hi Everyone,

    I'm trying to track down my grandfather's ww2 service records. I always thought he was in the Merchant Navy but other members of the family think he was in the Royal Navy. He didn't talk about the war when he was alive sadly.

    I have inherited some photos of him from 1945 which were sent back to family and he has inscribed them with the name of a ship / dates so I know he was onboard the HMS Assistance for at least the best part of a year up until the end of the war.

    I've done some research and now understand that this was a repair ship based in the pacific which does tie in with the locations cited on the photos. What is confusing me is whether he was in the merchant or royal navy. He is in some of the photos and is wearing some sort of all white uniform.

    I've been trawling through TNA records but can't find him there although I find the search options for Discovery quite tricky to master. We are going to put a formal request in for service records but I wanted to check on here first to see if anyone might be able to help clarify this because if he definitely wasn't in the Royal Navy they won't have any record of him will they?

    There's not an awful lot online about this particular ship.

    Thanks for reading.

    Andrea
     
  2. Robert-w

    Robert-w Banned

    There are people on this forum who can work wonders but they are not telepathic or clairvoyant so posting his name would probably help

    Whilst there were RN personnel on some merchant ships (usually as defensive gunners) it would seem less likely that there would be merchant seamen on an RN ship

    Edit if however she was a fleet auxiliary then it is very possible
     
    Last edited: May 15, 2020
  3. Andrea31

    Andrea31 Member

    Hi,

    Sorry his name was Henry George Williams born 30 Aug 1913.

    She was an auxiliary ship provided by the US Navy as far as I can tell.
     
  4. Tullybrone

    Tullybrone Senior Member

    Hi,

    Hopefully this is a more polite response to your 5th post on the forum since you joined in October.

    If you post as much as you know about your grandfather I’m sure the forum Naval expert Hugh MacLean may be able to give you some meaningful assistance.

    Steve
     
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  5. Andrea31

    Andrea31 Member

    Thank you Steve.
     
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  6. KevinBattle

    KevinBattle Senior Member

    Hi and welcome
    At first glance, it would seem he was Royal Navy
    Type Repair Ship. Class: Assistance Pennant F 173
    Built by Bethlehem-Fairfield Shipyard Inc. (Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A.)
    Laid down: 17 May 1944 Launched: 20 Jun 1944 Commissioned: 20 Jan 1945
    From the IWM photograph she looks like a conversion of a Liberty ship, perhaps returned to the US after the War?
    Which means he was either very young to have been in the RN from the start of the War, or that he served in other ships (and would have need one to get to America to be part of her crew from commissioning, close to the end of the War).
    It looks as if she was only in the Royal Navy for a short while, with just one Captain shown
    A/Capt. (retired) James Halliburton Young, RN 30 Aug 1944 mid 1946

    From BBC Peoples War archives, one chap who came home on HMS Assistance said they arrived home on Victory Day (May 8th presumably) 1946
     
  7. Andrea31

    Andrea31 Member

    This is the information I have about my grandfather for this timeframe.

    Full name: Henry George Williams
    Born: 30 Aug 1913. Gower South Wales - probably Penclawdd

    The pictures I have of him are inscribed as follows:
    20 08 45 HMS Assistance, Sydney
    24 08 45 Sydney - this is a headshot in a uniform
    15 09 45 Manus 'admiralty friends' - picture is taken onboard with colleagues
    08 09 45 Soloman Sea
    01 01 46 HMS Assistance, Singapore

    I've added a couple of the photos below incase what he is wearing is any help. in the group photo he is front left.

    Scan.jpeg Scan 1.jpeg

    I don't know what he did before 1945 in the war effort.

    If I should be adding more detail please let me know.

    Thanks for your help - and patience.

    Andrea
     
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  8. Andrea31

    Andrea31 Member

    Thanks Kevin - Yes I also found the reference on the BBC archive so at least one of my questions has been answered now - I know where he was on Victory Day :) I wasn't sure whether the whole ship would have been crewed by RN since it was turned into a repair ship with the Royal Fleet Auxillary (according to IWM).

    I will check the passenger lists!
     
  9. Roy Martin

    Roy Martin Senior Member

  10. Tullybrone

    Tullybrone Senior Member

    To a complete Naval novice the uniforms worn in the pictures look like those worn by sailors in Royal Navy.

    I’m aware that the British Pacific Fleet main operating base was at Manus Island, in the Admiralty Islands in 1945.

    Steve
     
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  11. KevinBattle

    KevinBattle Senior Member

    If you have access to an Ancestry account, they have the 1939 Registration census details, so you may be able to find him in civvy street.
    He does look proper Royal Navy, so as you say you are, his Service Records will provide much more information.
    Born in 1913, he won't appear on the available Census returns, but do you have any Family Tree for him?
    What else might you have, memorabilia, letters, medals, stories told to other family?

    If this is him, you'll need to submit a Death Certificate (available reasonably priced from GRO (NOT any other internet site that charges extra) with your Application
    Name: Henry George Williams. Event Type: Death Registration
    Registration Quarter: Jan-Feb-Mar 1993
    Registration District: Swansea Glamorganshire, Wales
    Birth Date 30 Aug 1913. Volume: 8971A Page: A102
     
  12. Hugh MacLean

    Hugh MacLean Senior Member

    Hello Andrea,
    He is definitely Royal Navy - not merchant or T124X.
    He was probably HO (hostilities only). Apply for his service records from The MoD. - don't waste any time with TNA Kew.

    Regards
    Hugh
     
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  13. Andrea31

    Andrea31 Member

    Thank you very much!

    We're just waiting for a duplicate death cert to make the application for records.

    Thanks again for everyone's help :)
     
  14. KevinBattle

    KevinBattle Senior Member

    There's some information on HMS Assistance (and sister ship HMS Diligence) over halfway down this web page. Continue down to the Special Repair Ratings information as well, to get an idea on what he might have been doing. If you can locate him on the 1939 Register, it may show his civilian occupation, which might link as to why he was selected for a Repair Ship. The History of the Royal Navy’s Fleet Repair Ship - HMS Ausonia
     
  15. Hugh MacLean

    Hugh MacLean Senior Member

    1939 Register -
    Henry G Williams, 30 Aug 1913, Male, Tinworker Seborid Helper, Single, 180, 4, [I think 'Seborid' is a poor transcription]
    Regards
    Hugh
     
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  16. KevinBattle

    KevinBattle Senior Member

    perhaps "solderers helper"?
     
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  17. Hugh MacLean

    Hugh MacLean Senior Member

    Second? tin.JPG
     
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  18. KevinBattle

    KevinBattle Senior Member

    looks like "second" as the stroke could be a pen mark from the line above?
    I only know of Oliver Twist as a "second helper" though :)
     
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  19. Ewen Scott

    Ewen Scott Well-Known Member

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  20. Andrea31

    Andrea31 Member

    Thank you again all for your continued help and for all the pointers / information on HMS Assistance.

    That is my grandfather in the 1939 census working in the tin works in Penclawdd. After the war he returned to the Swansea area where he lived until he passed away in 1993.
     
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