WW1 Submariners

[GallowayLass]

Can anybody point me in the right direction please?

The OH's paternal grandfather (born 1893) served on a submarine. We think it must be WW1 as surely he would be too old by WW2? It's only recently that we realised there were submarines in WW1.

Grampa was born, lived and died in the Lothians, Scotland.

OH can remember, as a boy, seeing a photo of his grampa on top of a submarine but we have no idea what unit he served with.

Due to long ago family difficulties, it's not possible to get access to this photo now.

I've checked ancestry records for him in service, medals and pension sections but drawn a blank. I've also looked at stuff online at the National Archives site.

Would he have been in the army or the navy to be on a WW1 sub? Was there only the one regiment/unit that he could have belonged to? How do we go about hunting down his service record?

Hoping somebody can help. Thanks.

[annswabey]

Not too sure, but Royal Navy? If so, service records for those enlisting up to 1923 are available for download on the documentsonline site - not sure whether you've already tried this.

[GallowayLass]

Yes I have tried that one for ratings up to 1923. There's no match.

[Durham Lady]

He'd be in the Royal Navy. Here's a photo of my uncle in uniform and he was a submariner.
He was born in 1903 and sadly died in Indonesia in 1938 after falling off the gangplank and hitting his head on the dockside.

[Just Barbara]

If he served in ww1 the Great War Forum is a good place to try for help.

[Grampa Jim]

Try the Royal Navy Submarine Museum. Google "Gosport" then "Places to Visit". They have a lot of information there.

[GallowayLass]

Thanks everybody.

Daphne - what a great photo, a real natural smiley!

I've just registered with the Great War forum. Was a bit taken aback that the email address I use for family tree stuff was not acceptable to them. It's a live.co.uk one. Yet a hotmail.com one is fine. They are both Windows Live/MSN...