Royal Artillery Maritime Regiment - Maritime Cards

Discussion in 'The War at Sea' started by Hugh MacLean, Oct 27, 2020.

  1. Hugh MacLean

    Hugh MacLean Senior Member

    For those researching the Royal Artillery Maritime Regiment DEMS gunners you will no doubt be aware they are very difficult to research due to the lack of seagoing information attached to their military records. This information is held in a maritime card which is rarely returned with service record information in my experience. I presume they are the ellusive maritime cards I have been looking for when advising on Maritime Regiment records.

    I believe those 'maritime cards' are actually held at Kew in pieces WO 435 and WO 436
    WO 435 - Defensively Equiped Merchant Ships (DEMS): Ships Cards.
    WO 436 - Defensively Equiped Merchant Ships (DEMS): Royal Artillery Maritime Regiments Medal Cards.

    I have not looked at those file references yet but if anyone is checking them out can you please post a card on here so I can see the detail and the dates.

    Also if anyone is needing lookup information on Maritime Regiment DEMS deaths ascribed to ships at sea let me know. I may be able to help as the ships are not mentioned by name on the CWGC or on Naval memorials.
    Regards
    Hugh
     
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  2. Reid

    Reid Historian & Architectural Photographer

    Ohhh, thanks a bunch Hugh! Will check this out, if I can. :)

    Edit: Sadly, not really possible online (to be honest I'm not sure if I was searching correctly, as everything came back as a negative), so I'll be interested to see what these look like too. :)
     
    Last edited: Oct 28, 2020
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  3. Hugh MacLean

    Hugh MacLean Senior Member

    I have just checked with TNA and apparently they are still with the MOD and not yet transferred to Kew despite it coming up on their catalogue. I have sent them a request for more details and I will post here when I get a reply.
    They are cards in alphabetical surname order detailing individual ships the MRA DEMS gunner served in including dates of joining and leaving and also medal entitlement.
    Regards
    Hugh
     
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  4. Billy McGee

    Billy McGee Senior Member

    Hugh, I have put together a Word Doc. of a list of Maritime Regt. casualties given to me by CWGC and by cross referencing details found in the Deaths at Sea Register, I have completed around 90% putting a ships name to each casualty in question. There are quite a number buried ashore, whose deaths may not be war related and as you know they still qualified for war grave status, so not able to trace ships name from the DASR. I will email you a copy for your files.
     
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  5. Hugh MacLean

    Hugh MacLean Senior Member

    Thank you Billy.
    Regards
    Hugh
     
  6. Reid

    Reid Historian & Architectural Photographer

    Billy, could you email a copy to me also?
    Thanks. :)

    Cheers,
    Nanette
     
  7. Hugh MacLean

    Hugh MacLean Senior Member

    Maritime Cards are held with the Ministry of Defence and the reply from TNA is as follows:
    "Thank you for enquiry about future transfers of records into the WO 435 and WO 436 series. We currently have no transfers from these series waiting to be released onto our catalogue Discovery".

    Basically, if researching Maritime Royal Artillery D.E.M.S. gunners, if mention of sea service states "see maritime card" rather than named ships then it is likely that those maritime records have not been consulted. For the avoidance of doubt I would recommend these records are searched for when enquiring about Maritime Royal Artillery D.E.M.S. otherwise it is possible that only land based records will be forwarded.
    Regards
    Hugh
     
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