On my father's Royal Navy Pay and Victualling record, one entry states that he was travelling to Australia between 22 December 1944 and 27 Jan 1945. The record states that this was 'duty passage.' Am I correct in thinking that he would have been employed as a signalman? I believe the ship was HMT Athlone Castle
There is a passenger list at Australian Archives for the Athlone Castle, unfortunately not digitised as yet. A list from an arrival almost a year later is digitised and available online. See Item ID: 7969975, which includes details of service personnel as passengers. Title Incoming passenger list for MV ATHLONE CASTLE arriving Sydney on 27 January 1945 Contents date range 1945 - 1945 Series number A907 Click to see which government agency or person created this item. Control symbol 1945/1/13 Citation NAA: A907, 1945/1/13 Item ID 8331568 Location Canberra Access status Open Date of decision 12 Nov 2004 Physical format PAPER FILES AND DOCUMENTS (allocated at series level) Extent 2 folios Records authority class number 1000190 Date registered 09 Jul 2004
Maybe but my inclination is that the term 'duty passage' just means he was travelling officially. Tim
Amongst the units on Athlone Castle on that journey starting Liverpool Dec 1944, were the personnel of MONABs II & III plus other support personnel for the British Pacific Fleet. They disembarked at Sydney on 24-25th Jan. Further information about those units here. The MONAB Story
Ewen, that's quite interesting, as the next entry after the 'duty passage' was for FONAS, (Flag Officer Naval Air Stations) That was for a few weeks until his next duty appeared to be HMS Golden Hind, RN quarters, Cairo House (which I'm told was the old Cairo Hotel in Sydney itself.) Dad often spoke about HMS Indomitable...
On the subject of MONABs, was there any record of the personnel attached to them? I know that we are talking about thousands of names, but it could be a starting point
HMS Golden Hind was a large transit camp accumulating RN Personnel for the British Pacific Fleet. FONAS (Australia) with responsibility for FAA Personnel was also based there. At this time HMS Indomitable was part of the BFP. H.M.S. GOLDEN HIND Tim
Ships history for Indomitable is here. HMS Indomitable, British aircraft carrier, WW2 HMS Indomitable in the Indian and Pacific Oceans 1944-45