Victor James Mellett, Royal Engineers, BEF, Dunkirk & ss River Afton, MN: 20/09/1942

Hi,

I am after some assistance in tracing my Great uncle's service in the Royal Engineers and his subsequent convalescence. It is only by accident that I found he had served in the Army prior to joining the Merchant Navy.

His name was Victor James Mellett (b. 1906) and from my research I found in a local newspaper article that he joined the Royal Engineers in 1939 and was wounded during the evacuation of Dunkirk in 1940. He was discharged on 11 Nov 1941. Unfortunately, that is all I can find.

Following his discharge he joined the Merchant Navy as a carpenter and was involved in the infamous Russian convoy PQ17 on the SS River Afton.

Any help would be gratefully received.

 

There is a record that unfortunately shows that he was killed:

CARPENTER VICTOR JAMES MELLETT
Merchant Navy S.S. River Afton (Glasgow)
Died 20 September 1942
Age 36 years old
Buried or commemorated at TOWER HILL MEMORIAL Panel 87.
Son of James Mellett, and of Elizabeth Ann Mellett, of Elstow, Bedfordshire.
https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/2800826/victor-james-mellett/

 

Hi Tony, thanks for the reply. I have managed to trace details of his merchant navy service but found a newspaper article that states he was wounded during the evacuation from Dunkirk whilst serving with the Royal Engineers being discharged on 11 Nov 1941 as unfit for service. He then joined the merchant navy.

 

Some information from Ancestry from his Merchant Navy but nothing from his time in the Royal Engineers sorry.

 

Hi Dale,
His Merchant Navy service record called a form CRS 10 should be held at Kew in piece BT 382/1210 - this file though only begins January 1941 and as he died in 1942 there would not be much in the way of information there - it would also be expensive to obtain online although free if you can visit the archives.

I can tell you that he joins ss REDGATE on 30 April 1942 so probably only that and RIVER AFTON would be his service in the MN although you never know.

The master of RIVER AFTON, Captain R.W. Charlton made a [5 page] Survivor's Report to the Admiralty Trade Division unfortunately the scan is not good enough to reproduce here.

Regards
Hugh