Can you be a little bit more specific to save me having to guess? - date and place of birth would be a good start. What would you like to know? Regards Hugh
Richard Roe was once a name used to denote a generic person - like John Doe (or Tommy Atkins for that matter) Richard Roe Merchant Navy could well mean - the average seaman.
Sadly I dont have many details. He was torpedoed twice on murmansk run and survived. He was an irish national who moved over to the UK
Had a quick poke around a few sites but without more than a name, nationality and merchant navy, I'm hitting nothing but an expected brick wall. Happy to help if you're able to provide anything more specific or definitive......... how did you come across his name, what's the source of your knowledge re his merchant navy service, the torpedo episodes and his nationality? Good luck!
He is the uncle of my crew manager at the fire station. That's all the details he has. He knows he spent time on tankers but not sure if it was the whole war or just a short period.
You would require a copy of his CRS-10 service file from the 1941 to 1972 Fifth Register of Merchant Seaman's Service. These records are held at The National Archives at Kew in classification BT 382. They are held in block by surname and each file holds the records of up to sixty individuals and would require a visit to Kew unless you want to pay their outrageous fees. His service file should be held in file “BT 382/1560” covering the surnames ” Rowe H H to Rowland K M” These file details include the following information: Name of seaman, Date and place of birth, Discharge (Seaman’s) book number, Rank, Details of the ships on which he served. These include: Name of ship and official number, date of engagement. Date of discharge whether ship was a foreign going of home trade vessel, and records in some cases National Insurance contributions. Details shown in these records are similar to those contained in an individual seaman's discharge book. There is also a medal file listing for a Richard Rowe at this link BT 395/1/84659. This may not be your man, but if you can try and get confirmation on date of birth will verify.
