4th Regiment Maritime Anti-Aircraft Royal Artillery WW2

Hi

I hope someone can help, my grandfather WW2 was in the Royal Artillery. i have his service record.

He was posted 14/04/1941 to the 4th Regiment Maritime Anti-Aircraft Royal Artillery.

is this a Army regiment or a Navy regiment. who would have of issues his medals, the Army council.

Medals received x5

The War Medal 1939–1945 is a campaign medal
DEFENCE Medal May 1945 campaign medal
PACIFIC STAR Medal, May 1945 is a campaign medal
Specifically, in the Pacific campaign from 1941 to 1945.
1939 - 1945 STAR MEDALS, is a military campaign medal 8 July 1943
Award for service in the Second World War
ATLANTIC STAR MEDALS, May 1945
Specifically those who took part in the Battle of the Atlantic
the longest continuous campaign of the war

Any help would be great

Paul

 

Hi Paul and welcome,
The Maritime Regiment R.A. is an army regiment. His medals would be issued by the army.

The Royal Navy and the Maritime Regiment supplied Defensively Equipped Merchant Ships (D.E.M.S.) gunners for the Merchant Navy - they looked after the defensive armament on those ships.
The Maritime Regiment gunners like the RN (D.E.M.S.) are difficult to research. I would imagine your grandfather's maritime card is not with his service records. If that is the case finding out which ships he served aboard could be difficult but if you could supply a name, date and place of birth it may help.

Each regiment was responsible for a designated area of shipping:
The 4th Regt, Southport - Mersey. Although that did not necessarily mean that he sailed out of Liverpool ports all the time.
He has the Atlantic Star medal because of service at sea on D.E.M.S.

Regards
Hugh

 

Hi Hugh,

Thanks for the info ( no maritime card ) , just his service record

His name
Walter Bollands
1898–1966
BIRTH 15/12/1898 • 24 Hopkins Street Middlesbrough Yorkshire - North Riding

( Corps Royal Artillery Light Anti Aircraft ) Army Rank Gunner (Equating to Private )
( Army No 1482498 )

Military
04/02/1942
Reported Missing at Sea

 

Sounds like his ship was sunk and he survived. Can you post his Service Record? There may be some other information ie. Casualty List which is not apparent to you. In particular it is not clear whether 04/2/42 refers to the date the ship sank or whether it is the date of the report. For instance MV Silveray was torpedoed and sunk 4/2/42 by U751 south of Halifax. But whether this was your grandfather's ship is a guess. The Master and 40 others survived. Hugh will probably be able to help further.

Tim

 

I see from your family tree he also served in WW1 - thats a 'full' tree you have for him

TD

 

In the absence of a Maritime Card it is very difficult to trace him as the only way to do that is via Merchant Navy records and to do that you need to know the name of at least one ship to start with. All DEMS gunners signed the Articles of Agreement becoming part of the ship's crew under the master. If that known ship is at the end of his service we can - with a bit of luck - trace back his service via MN Crew Agreements which usually but not always list the previous ship.
Anyway I think we have found our bit of luck. I have Walter Bollands age 44 - 2 years at sea as a deck hand aboard the catapult aircraft merchantmen (CAM) ship ss NOVELIST in July of 1943. So I can't help with records after July 1943 but if you can obtain the Crew Agreement for NOVELIST official number 166296 for the year 1943 you should hopefully see him listed as a deck hand and also name his previous ship. That way you can back track his service. So it looks like he first went to sea in 1941.
D.E.M.S. gunners were paid a nominal shilling a week by the ship owners, given civilian clothing and were all classed as deck hands for legal reasons.

The 1943 Crew Agreement for NOVELIST official number 166296 is held at Kew in piece BT 381/2570
Hope that is of some help.
Regards
Hugh

 

I see there is another thread with information about your grandfather. Here it says after his ship was bombed he was taken to Singapore. If this is correct and with the date of 4/02/42 he was lucky not to have been captured.
Royal Artillery any idea of photo loctions

Tim

 

Oh I do hate duplicate threads LOL. Thanks for the heads up Tim.
Hugh

 

Hi
Yes ill dig it out and upload at some point this week.

Regards

 

Hi

Thanks for all the info

The other threads was 3 years ago 2015, it was to do with some photos, my father gave me of Walter Bollands in ww2.
i was looking at the locations.

Regards

 

Ref Family tree, i spent a long time researching Walter Bollands, ww1 service record, POW red cross,
WW2 is much hard to piece together. ill have a look at Kew Crew Agreement for NOVELIST.

Thanks

 

Ive just ordered the Kew in piece BT 381/2570, The 1943 Crew Agreement for NOVELIST official number 166296

 

Do you still want me to upload his ww2 service record, just let me know ill sort out ASAP.

Paul

 

Hi Paul,
Yes please. They may prove useful in the future if not now.
I understand what you are saying about your previous post on the photographs but the responses did include information which was not repeated on this thread ie. that your grandfather had served in WW1 and that MV Silveray had already been identified as a possible ship and then discounted. That his ship had been bombed rather than torpedoed, he was missing for three days and was then taken to Singapore. All useful information in trying to get the picture.
Hoping you are lucky with the Novelist.

Tim

 

Ok Ive got the service record from my dads. will uploads shortly

 

Here one doc

 

Next

 

Next

 

and this one

 

and