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 coastguard service records 1895 - 1909
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| Nigel Townsend |
Posted on 14/10/2012 03:43
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 New Member  Posts: 3 Joined: 13/10/2012 |
Hi Thank you for a fantastic site that shows an enormous amount effort genorously given. I am trying to get some info on my G Grandfather who served in the coastguard in the Kingstown district from 1895 to 1909. 1. John Townsend was born in the Calne district in Wiltshire, 3 Feb 1859. 2. His father vanished, probably with a gang of railway construction labourers, his mother died in childbirth and he ended up in the workhouse with his siblings. He subsequently lived with relatives and eventually ran away with his brother to work in the S.Wales coalmines. These were affected by major strikes in 1874 and John joined the Royal Navy on 13 Jan1875, effective service appears to be 3 Feb 1875. He persuaded his brother, William, to join too and he commenced in the Navy on 8 April 1875. William did not join the coastguard. 3. On 18 JUN 1895 John married Sarah Page in London (miss-spelled on subsequent Irish certificates as Peach! - presume the accent) and on 28 Oct 1895, John was sent as a P.O. 1 C (Petty Offr Class 1?) to HMS Melampus, which is what I believe was the Coastguard cruiser stationed at Kingstown (Dublin). He was there until 19 Nov 1895. 4. Interestingly the National Archives records for 89833 John Townsend (ADM 188/96/232) do show his postings within the Coastguard. His own personal Naval documents (I have the original docs[vellum?] for William and John) show less information, only his posting to the HMS Melampus and his subsequent annual performance reviews and promotions in the CG until 1903. 5. The NA document shows his moves around Ireland as well as promotions. Unfortunately the writing is poor on the document so I have had to use some guesswork as to the location of his postings. They appear to be as follows: a. 29 Oct 1895 to 19 Nov 1895 P.O.1.C HMS Melampus b. 20 NOV 1895 to 21 AUG 1899 Boatman Kingstown - Cranfield c. 22 AUG 1899 Boatman Kingstown - Dunany Point (worst writing-biggest assumption) d. 5 Jun 1900 to 22 June 1900 Commissioned Boatman - Dunany Point e. 23 June 1900 to 28 July 1903 Commissioned Boatman - Ballymoney f. 28 July 1903 Pensioned off (his original cert of service has a (pension?) number inserted at this point -7021) g. 16 Jan 1904 Joined Royal Fleet Reserve (Devonport Port Division - official No. still as 89833 on his original cert of service) (Note- another number comes up as a/1223 by hand at the top of his RFR cert of service and when his NA navy/coastguard cert of service notes his joining the RFR ). 6. Some correspondence from the Admiralty regarding his pension dated 15 March 1909 states 'in reply quote AG 10 CS 15438'. 7. The census of 1901 shows him living at Ballymoney Lower (Co. Wexford) although his surname is spelt the Irish way with an additional 'H' (TownsHend). He appears to be living in the Coastuard cottages shown in the photograph on this site (thanks to whoever put that up!) as the Form B1 shows the 'house' two down is a coastguard tower. This would suggest that the following people were his colleagues at the time: a. Thomas Gould b. Charles Holmes c. John Bullen d. William Jago 8. The (April) 1901 census shows a son (Patrick) aged 1 at last birthday born in Co. Louth - which suggests its the Dunany Point station (County + best interpretation of scribble on NA document). Not got a birth cert for him yet, but Patrick died Oct 1907. (Thanks whoever developed the list of stations by County on this site). 9. His two other siblings (2 and 4 yrs) were born in Co. Down. 10. So it looks like he was posted (dates above) to Cranfield in Co, Down, Dunany Point in Co Louth and then Ballmoney in Co Wexford. John's son, born in 1896, shows Greencastle, in the district of Kilkeel, on his birth certificate so I assume it is Cranfield Point, Kilkeel and the photos on this site of a coastguard cottage on Leestone Road, Kilkeel would be part of this complex. 11. When he left the CG he found work as a watchman at Ballyduff Lodge near Arklow (not that far from Ballymoney) and the family joined the local community, his son marrying a local Catholic girl (John's family were Wesleyans and C of Ireland). Unfortunately this all fell apart in 1921 when most of the family barely escaped with two suitcases, leaving his new born grand child (Denis) behind with dead daughter-in-law's (died shortly after giving birth) family (probably in Arklow) who could not be contacted then or since. Without the courage and warning of some of the local community they would not have escaped to England with their lives as not only was he Navy and CG but also another of John's sons (Frederick) had joined the Royal Dublin Fusiliers in 1915 and had been involved in the fighting at Dublin Post Office in 1916, before going to Belgium. He (Fredrerick) was unable to return after WW1 due to death threats made against him. A sad time for all. 12, OK so that is what I know, based on my work and that of my late father. I hope it adds to the general picture you are developing on this site. I am trying to get a better idea of what John did in the Coastguard during his time. Looking at the dates on the NA, I suspect his CG records were destoyed (1921? WWII?) as there does not seem to be much info for this period. The sort of info I am after is: a. are there more detailed CG records for each of the CG stations which give details (like a log) of what goes on (hopefully with John's name mentioned) b. would there be more detailed personnel assessment records for indviduals created by the CG c. I have two old photos (poor condition) of men in sailors uniforms which may be Navy or coastguard Uniforms. I am not sure if they are of John or William. One is hatless on a ship's deck and one is a studio photo (in Calne) which has a round hat with ships ribbon, but it's name is unreadable. Is there somewhere you can reccomend that has pictures of CG and RN unifoms in the late 1800's and before 1910. d. Are there photos of the coastguard station itself at Cranfield or any photos of Ballymoney station? I live in Australia so dropping over to Ireland and driving around these locs is a bit difficult, Google is useful, but researching through your site has made a number of disparate pieces come together to form the story above. Many thanks to the hard workers who made this possible. Cheers, Nigel (or is it slansg?) |
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