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CHAPTER  FOUR
THE WHEREABOUTS OF
MY PATERNAL GRANDFATHER, JOHN MILLS,
IN 1896.

Having temporarily 'lost the trail' of my paternal Great Grandparents family, after the birth of my Grandad John Mills in 1881, I decided to try and find out more information about my Grandad, himself.  Basically, all that I knew, was he that had been orphaned at an early age, and had been placed on a training ship on the Thames, in preparation for a life at sea, in the Royal Navy, which was when he lost his life in an accident at sea.

Initially, I had to go along with the thought that my Grandad had been orphaned early in life.  Consequently, it was a possibility that his parents, and maybe his siblings as well, had all died either as the result of a tragic accident, or from an illness that had run rife in the family.

First port of call for me, was to track down my Grandad's  Service Record with the Royal Navy, at the Public Records Office at Kew ---- (now called the National Archives Centre).  All that I had, was his name and date of birth.  Believing that the Army and Navy only engage men into the services from 18 years of age, it seemed reasonable to assume that I should start looking for his acceptance into the Navy around about 1899.  However, I then had the thought that if he had been an orphan, he could have been placed on a Royal Naval training ship  as a boy sailor at about 15 or 16 years old ---- and perhaps I should start looking from about 1896 instead.

As luck would have it, I managed to obtain a copy of his service record from the National Archive Centre,   which showed that he had indeed been accepted into the Navy as a boy sailor on the 27 June 1896.  His first vessel being the Royal Navy's training ship HMS St Vincent based at Portsmouth.  It also showed that prior to  joining the St Vincent, Grandad's previous employment had been with the Warspite ---- which, I presumed must have the training ship on the Thames, that he was sent to as an 'orphan'.

For some reason Grandad's service record shows his date of birth as the 7 April 1880, instead of  the 7 May 1881 as indicated on his birth certificate.  Quite how this discrepancy occurred isn't known.  It could have been an error on the part of the person who took down my Grandad's details; but if Grandad was an orphan, then  he may not have known his correct date of birth.  As it stands,  his record shows that he was slightly over 15 years old when he joined the  Royal Navy as a boy sailor.

By sheer chance, at the same time as I received the copy of his service details, I was reading a book entitled Anchor and Hope, which had been written by a lady called Jo Anderson about Thames Watermen at the beginning of the 20th century.  In one of her chapters, she was reporting some memories of a Thames Sailing Barge sailorman, Charlie Jackson, who had recalled the days when prisoners were kept in hulks on the Thames at Woolwich, saying that:-

The author went on to say that the original Warspite had been towed away to nearby Greenwich in 1901, and that another training ship replaced her, and the name stuck.

Another contributor to her book, Harry Thomas Harris, recalled the Warspite as follows: -

According to the author, what the messages were, remain unrecorded, but according to (her) Grandad, they would have been unprintable.  Her uncle, her Grandad's second cousin reckoned: -

After I made some further enquiries through the Chatham Dockyard Historical Society, I found out that the Warspite was a ship loaned by the Admiralty, to a charitable organisation called the Marine Society.  This piece of information prompted me to approach the Marine Society, to see if they still had records which might possibly show when my Grandfather had been placed on board their training ship.  Also, the records might  have given an indication where he had been living prior to that, and whether or not he had nominated any next of kin at that time.  In my mind, I was still of the opinion that he had been orphaned, and was curious to know whether his brother William, or his sister, Edith, were still alive, and whether either of them had been nominated as his next of kin.

I contacted the Marine Society's offices in Lambeth Road, South-east London, and was advised that they no longer held the records of the boys that had passed through their hands, and suggested that I contact the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich, who held a lot of their old records.  However, they did give me some background to their organisation, and some extracts from an annual report issued in 1901, giving details of the General Routine on board the training ship, the type of clothing supplied to each trainee, and the daily allowance of provisions at that time.

Apparently the Marine Society came into being back in 1756, when Lord Henry Powlett asked another man, Sir John Fielding, who was a London magistrate, if he could provide a number of boys for a ship of his called the Barfleur.  Simultaneously, another man, called Jonas Hanway, was also collecting men for service in the King's ships, which was a project already supported by various companies in the City of London.  The most notable feature of the scheme was the provision of suitable clothing for the landsmen volunteers, and to invite boys to attend the Society's office where they could obtain some basic education in reading and writing, and to wait until they were applied for by ship's captains or masters.  In the first year of operation, some 1580 boys and 1961 men were supplied for service in the King's ships.

At the end of 1763, the Society almost ceased operations, although boys were still assisted in finding work ashore, such as in ropemaking and boatbuilding.  A man called William Hickes, who was a Hamburg merchant, made a bequest to the Society, which was the subject of much litigation.  However, after 1769, the income from that bequest was used for the training of apprentices, including girls, and enabled the Society to continue its work, strengthened by an Act of Parliament in 1772 for its incorporation.

In 1786 a plan was put forward with a view to training boys, possibly orphans, on board a ship.  Then, after some preliminary investigation, it was decided that there was a good mooring on the River Thames between Deptford and Greenwich, for a suitable ship of 400 tons. Twelve tenders of merchant ships were then considered, before settling on a Liverpool vessel called the Beatty, costing £ 650.  She was then fitted out with suitable flags and re-named the Marine Society.  Careful regulations were duly drawn up, and the number of boys soon reached one hundred.  When the ship was eventually considered being beyond economical repair, application was then made to the Admiralty, and two sloops called Thorn and Racehorse, of 16 guns, were provided and successfully used for this purpose.

Later, in 1862, a ship called the Warspite was obtained from the Admiralty to continue this work.  The vessel was an old 3rd rate wooden wall, originally comprising 76 guns, which had been launched at Chatham Dockyard in 1807.  From that moment onwards, the name of Warspite was preserved for the Society for subsequent replacement vessels.  Sadly, that very 'first' Warspite was accidentally burnt at her Woolwich moorings on the 3 January 1876.

The successor to that ship was a 1st rate wooden wall of 120 guns, which had been originally launched as HMS Waterloo at Chatham in June 1833.  Twenty-six years later, in 1859, the vessel returned to Chatham Dockyard, and was fitted for Screw propulsion, but retained her full sailing rig.  Three more years  passed and the vessel's name was changed to HMS Conqueror --- after a ship of that name (1855 - 1861), was lost.  

Then, when the Conqueror took up her moorings at Woolwich on the 11 August 1876, the ship was renamed Warspite as a replacement to the one that had been lost by fire earlier that year.

By a strange quirk of fate, that 'replacement' Warspite was also accidentally burnt at her moorings on the 20 January 1918. At first, I tried to work out which of the Warspite  vessels my Grandfather would have been on, by using the information that I had  found in the book Anchor and Hope.  However, the Watermen's memories of the vessel in use in their day did not quite tally with the information that I subsequently received from the Marine Society and the Chatham Dockyard Historical Society.  Therefore, I am inclined to think that my Grandad must have trained aboard the Warspite, as pictured above, which had been on loan from the Admiralty from 11 August 1876.  However, I have no doubt that all boys serving on whichever Warspite was being used, were always mischievous.

One of the things that has amazed me whilst researching Grandad's naval career, is how old the training ships were.  Take the particular Warspite which he must have trained on.  At the time the vessel was loaned to the Marine Society it was already 43 years old; when my Grandad first clambered aboard the ship, it was 63; and by the time it went up in flames in 1918, it had notched up 85 years service.

Having found out when Grandad entered the Royal Navy as a boy sailor, I was curious to know when he actually joined the training ship on the Thames, and decided that a trip to the National Maritime Museum was called for ----- to examine the Marine Society's records.  It wasn't a difficult exercise, but it looked as though it was going to be a slow process looking through the ledgers, peering at the names of all the boys that had passed through their hands.  What I didn't know, was how long boys were on the training ship prior to being accepted into the Royal Navy.  Was it weeks, months or years?  Where should I start looking?  The boys names were listed in alphabetical order under their year of posting to the vessel.

So, having casually browsed through the ledgers, and not really knowing where to start, I decided that it possibly took no longer in 1896 to train a boy in basic seamanship, than it did for me to do my basic training to become a 'soldier' for my National Service in 1957. That, took just three months!  Using the three months as a guideline, I decided to double it ---- just in case ---- and started my search six months before my Grandfather was accepted into the Royal Navy.  Fortunately, I found that I had made the right decision, and within a matter of minutes, I found his name and the date he joined the Warspite, which turned out to be the 21 January 1896.

Reading along the line containing his name, it showed that he was born on 7 April 1880, and that his age was 15 years and 9 months.  It also shows that he was 5ft 1ins tall at the time he joined the ship.  However, his actual birth certificate shows that he was born on the 7 May 1881, which means that he was really only 14 years and 8months old when he was accepted by the Marine Society.

Earlier, I passed comment about whether this was an error on the part of the person completing Grandad's details when he entered the Royal Navy, but obviously the anomaly concerning his date of birth stems from when he actually joined the Marine Society's training ship. Thinking about it at the time, I thought that there was every possibility that my Grandad hadn't been  too sure of his own date of birth. One has to remember that in those days, birth certificates were not in such demand by 'officials' as they are today, and it is quite on the cards that he  didn't know his exact date of birth, especially if had been orphaned early in his life.

His entry in the Marine Society's records also revealed a couple of other interesting facts.  One of which, showed that prior to joining the training ship, Grandad had been employed as a draper's assistant, and was obviously working for his living at the age of fourteen. The second fact, was even more surprising to me, and shattered my belief that he had been an orphan at the time he joined the training ship. Under a column headed ---- 'Person to contact in case of need' ---- it showed that the person nominated was his mother, Emily Mills, living at 6, Wilford Road, Croydon, Surrey ---- and gave her occupation as being a child-carer.

So what did that mean?  He obviously wasn't an orphan after all. However, because his father's name hadn't been given as his next of kin, it could have meant that perhaps it was only his father that had died.  Moreover, where were his brother and sister at that time?  ----- After all, they would have been about 21 and 20 years old respectively, in 1896!  Also, was my Grandfather living with his mother at the time he joined the training ship? I think, he probably had been living with her, as he was still fairly young and wasn't quite 15 years of age.

After acquiring these details I contacted the Marine Society, to say that although I had located my Grandfather's name in their records, I was surprised to find out that he hadn't been orphaned as I had always understood from my Dad.  I also said that I had been under the impression that their Society only took orphans to help educate and train them for a career at sea, with either the Merchant Navy or the Royal Navy.  In their reply, I was quickly assured that it wasn't the case, and although they did take orphans, sometimes parents would put their children forward to be trained for a life at sea ---- which is possibly what had happened in my Grandfather's case.
I was also curious to know what life would have been like on board the training ship for a 15 year-old boy in 1896.  Unfortunately I have no idea what it was really like, but the Marine Society did furnish me with some details that were published in their Annual Report of 1901, together with pictures of  boys undergoing training in the 1890's.  Those details help to give an insight into the general routine that was in operation on board the ship at that time, together with details of the clothing that was supplied to each trainee, plus the daily provisions allowance for the boys, which are shown on the following pages:-

On Saturdays there is no school, and the ship is thoroughly cleaned.  On Friday afternoons the boys have a half-holiday.
 

Having 'worn the hat' of a Marine Supplies Purchasing Officer during my own working life, I found the 'List of Daily Allowances', very interesting. At the time that I took early retirement in 1998, some 102 years after my Grandfather had been on the Warspite, the basic formula for daily calculations had not altered very much.  However, the variety of items available to the crews over that same period of time had improved considerably.  I only wish that I had had the list to hand when one of the Ships' Masters' came on the telephone to me, complaining that I had cut down on their quantities of Smoked Salmon, King Prawns, T-bone Steaks, Asparagus and the like!

Quite why my Grandad decided to approach the Marine Society to be trained for a life at sea isn't known. Was it a considered choice on his part ---- or, was it something that was 'forced' upon him?

No doubt, if his father had died when my Grandad and his siblings were still very young, it is possible that his mother would have struggled to bring the family up without any form of state help.  The fact that his mother was living in Wilford Road, Croydon ---- a particularly poor area  ----  would seem  to point to the fact that she wasn't likely to have been very well-off.

Wilford Road, itself, was in an area known locally as 'Bang 'ole' ---- and didn't welcome strangers into its midst!  Any unsuspecting persons entering that area, were more than likely be beaten up and robbed. Even in my day, as a child growing up in the 1940's, one didn't visit Bang 'ole, unless you really had to!  Although, I suspect that during my childhood, the area was probably only living on its past 'reputation'.

Although I now know that my Grandfather wasn't an orphan at the time he was accepted by the Marine Society, I am still curious to know why either he, or his Mum, 'volunteered' him to  be trained for a life at sea. Somehow, I find it difficult to believe that his mother would have put him forward for that sort of life. After all, she was seemingly a poor widow, and more importantly --- a mother.

In the absence of any social services in those days, to lose the availability of any money that he might have been able to earn, seems reason enough not to have wanted him to join the Royal Navy.  Then, there is the fact that she was a mother! And, to my mind, it is well known that, mothers, wives, and sweethearts, are the most unlikeliest of people to want their men-folk to serve in any form of military service. Especially when it means that they are likely not to see them for long periods of time, or  that they  could be seriously harmed or even killed whilst performing their 'duty'. Because of that, I feel that it is most unlikely that his mother would have willingly put my Grandfather's name forward to become a sailor.

Therefore, I feel that he must have 'volunteered' himself for some reason. Perhaps he thought it would be an opportunity to break away from poor surroundings, which must have seemed pretty bleak ----  to better himself  ---- or perhaps, for the chance of seeing the world.

However, since his details as entered into the Marine Society's records, showed him to have been a draper's assistant prior to his acceptance by the Society, I would have thought that he would have been in relatively secure employment. The wages as a draper's assistant, wouldn't have been very high, especially at his age; but, they would have been regular ---- and free from 'danger'. The wage for an adult shop assistant was about £1 per week at that time. The payment for being an Able-seaman in the Royal Navy, at that time would have been much the same; however, the working conditions as a sailor would have been much harder.

I recently came across an advert published in 1905 for joining the Marine Society. Perhaps he had seen something similar in 1896 ---- but it is hardly the sort of advert that would make you rush out and 'join up' ---- it was more like a last resort to me!

I hope to eventually find out more about the ships he sailed in, as listed on his Service Record, and to identify exactly which parts of the world he visited.  The intention being, to try and shed more light on the man that I never knew, so that his somewhat shortened life has more than just half a dozen pieces of paper to remember him by.  

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http://www.workhouses.org.uk/index.html?trainingships/trainingships.shtml

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