Service records are confusing and difficult to interpret but are the key to researching the story of family members who served in the Navy as a rating or an officer. They are restricted to close family members until 116 years after birth when they are transferred to The National Archives and made avaliable to everybody.

Capital ships of the Royal Navy, the cruisers and battleships, were "self-accounting". The ships' Writers updated the Service Certificates for the men and the Pay and Victualing Ledgers for the ship. The names of men joining and leaving the ship, going on leave, returning from leave, changing messes, becoming entitled to a "tot" of rum and anything that could effect the numbers being fed on a particular day were recorded in the ledgers. In smaller ships including destroyers the  ledgers and service certificates known as "central record cards" were held by the "depot" at the naval base. The name of the shore base where these records were held appeared on a man's Service Certificate followed by the name of his ship in brackets. The date he joined and the date he left was recorded alongside.

To find out more about the work of ship's writers on larger  "self accounting" ships read the entry for PO Robert Reid "Bob" Campbell, Ship's writer (C/MX 64730) in the destroyer depot ship HMS Hecla, who left her at Simons Town before she was torpedoed and sunk off the coast of Morocco on 12 November 1942.  Sue Pass, Head of the Naval Record Office. had this to say: "As we often say in the department Navy is not 'navy' it’s often grey due to the complicated way it is record wise".

Service Records of Ratings and Petty Officers (PO)

Ratings held a personal copy of their record card which recorded the name of the accounting base (with the name of his ship in brackets) and reports on his performance by the commanding officer. In the example below, Stoker 1st Class Thomas William Charles Tweedy (P/KX 77368) served in HMS Vortigern from 15 June 1939 until 15 March 1942 but the naval base where the ships records were kept changed several times and when his ship was sunk and his body was not recovered he was "(presumed) DD" (discharged dead).

Service records are as dry  as dust but they tell a story if you learn to read it
Left: Crop from the service record of Stoker Thomas Tweedy
Right: Flimsy of Lt Cdr C.G.W. Donald RN killed by a sniper six months later on 23 May 1940

Service Records of Officers

The service records of officers from the most junior Midshipman to the Commanding Officer were not held aboard ship but retained by the Admiralty. When an officer left a ship or the CO changed the officer would receive a personal copy of the CO's Officer's Fitness Report (Form S206) on his performance sent to the Admiralty. A standard entry might read  performed "to my entire satisfaction". These reports known as "flimsies" are frequently found amongst a retired officers papers after his death but his family can follow the same procedure for ratings (see below) to obtain a copy of his full service record. Six months after leaving HMS Iron Duke Lt Cdr C.G.W. Donald RN was shot dead by a sniper at Boulogne on the bridge of his first command HMS Vimy. The ships in which an officer served can also be traced through his entries in the quarterly Naval Lists and along with other sources are used by the Dutch researcher Hans Houterman to create his online  directory of the naval service of officers on www.unithistories.com

Download records from the National Archives

Further details are given on this page: https://www.apply-deceased-military-record.service.gov.uk/essential-information

To apply online, you need a:

    digital copy of the death certificate of the person you’re requesting the records of in the correct format (PDF, JPG or PNG)
    debit or credit card

Your request will be forwarded to Restore Records  Management who will carry out a search and e-mail you the record.

All the surviving Pay and Victualing Ledgers and the Central Record Cards are held by the Navy Records Office of Restore Records Management at Swadlincote, South Derbyshire. Restore  Records have a contract from the Ministry of Defence to supply copies of service certificates to the next of kin of officers and men. When the original no longer exists they can be reconstructed from the ledgers for the ships in which the man served. This is a lengthy and time consuming task for which a standard fee of £30 is charged. It will readily be appreciated that these ledgers may contain errors or gaps but, strangely, they may also contain details of ships not listed on the original service certificate, especially when a man is only briefly aboard while "taking passage" to join a new ship. Restore Records supply copies of central record cards with a brief guide to the information given on them which can be downloaded as a PDF.

Postal applications for Service Records