Help with naval service research please

[Dubonnet lady]

A neighbour has asked if I can offer any help with research on an ancestor of his:
This is what he's told me:

He served in the Royal Navy circa 1910 - 1930. This chap walked from the Royal Naval Old Comrades building one side of the town to a fete the other side of town sometime in the 1920's dressed in a full divers outfit. It was said he was actually a diver, but I have my doubts.
A recent set of three photographs have recently emerged showing him in uniform at (I guess) various times in his service.
They all show a badge on his right sleeve depicting a torpedo with a star above and below it. On his left arm there are chevrons.....first one, then two, then three. His cap has ......HMS (? out of focus) Commonwealth on it.

Any ex Naval people out there who know what this all means please ? I am not conversant with this sort of history has anyone any ideas?
Thanks

[grumpy]

Dorothy,
the three chevrons on his left sleeve are good conduct stripes - these days received after 4, 8 and 12 years continuous good conduct. I have the feeling though from memory

in those days the time period may have been 5,9 and 12 - end result being the same. 3 is the maximum number a naval rating can acquire.

The torpedo with a star above it (there have been variations of this badge over the years) indicated that your man was a Seaman Torpedoman. His ranking would have been that of

an Able seaman. If he was a qualified diver he would have also had a divers helmet badge on his lower right sleeve.,

[Dubonnet lady]

David - thanks so much for your helpful answer, which I shall pass on... Assuming that its possible that part of the sleeve is not visible with the Divers badge on it, could that fact be ascertained elsewhere?

Have you any idea what the name of the ship could be or where that information can be found?

[grumpy]

Dorothy,

Apologies on failing on that part of your question. For some reason (old age, stupid or the like);D I didn't read past the out of focus bit on your original post. Full details of HMS Commonwealth below.

You would have to go the the National Archives for his service record. I am not sure if they are on line or not, but if so there would be a record of what qualifications the person in question would have

obtained.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Commonwealth_(1903)

[grumpy]

DL,
Reading thru the blurb on HMS Commonwealth, I note that she was fitted with underwater torpedo tubes which is probably why a torpedo man was in the ships company.

[Dubonnet lady]

Once again thankyou David, I'm grateful for you help, and so will my neighbour be

[Caroline]

If you need to get any further, there are some naval records on findmypast:

Royal Naval Division Records 1914-1919

Royal Naval Division Service Records 1914-1920 - the latter link has images of the service records.

Ancestry has some too:

UK, Naval Officer and Rating Service Records, 1802-1919

UK, Naval Medal and Award Rolls, 1793-1972

There may also be other useful stuff on our own Royal Navy page.

[Dubonnet lady]

Thanks Caroline - I'll pass those on too

[SmallTownGirl]

Might there be a newspaper cutting about the walk across town in a diver's suit?

STG

[Dubonnet lady]

STG - Thanks for the thought, but I believe I remember him reading that somewhere and that's what started him off on the trail of finding out more, but I will mention it again