Seeking information on RN sailor HMS Tiger WW1

[Medaller]

Hello everyone,

It's been a long time since I have been here, I used to collect Soviet medals and orders and Australian WW1 and 2 medals.

 

But today it's a personal one that's related to the Royal Navy. I know very little about RN records, so am hoping to get some information as to whether there is anymore out there than what I have found. But to the story........

 

I have spent a lot of time on my family tree. Years. But there is one branch that has constantly alluded me. It's the question of who my paternal grandfathers father is.

 

 

My grandfathers birth certificate had very little information, but I have just finally got his brothers certificate after having to wait for the 100 year anniversary of his birth (Australian law). Finally I got something that gave me a break. Henry Joseph Rawlings. I have found the man, but many parts are missing.

 

The Henry Joseph Rawlings in question was (allegedly) born on 20 December 1893 in Melbourne, Australia. However I cannot find a birth certificate for him.

What I did find was a WW1 document that shows that he was a Stoker 1st Class on HMS Tiger during the Battle Of Jutland. He was severely wounded on 31 May 1916 and according to the document was transferred to the Royal Australian Navy and on to HMAS Australia. There is some other writing that I cant make out.

 

I know that this is my great grandfather due to a paper trail. He signed a child maintenance agreement in 1923 in regards to my grandfather and his brother, but skipped almost straight away.

In 1929, a warrant went out for his arrest as he owed about 230 pounds (an amount that I once worked out means that he either never paid a cent or maybe made one or two payments). His police description states that he is a ships fireman and has a large coat of arms tattooed on his chest. The WW1 RN file states he has the Australian coat of arms tattooed on his chest.

 

His Royal Australian Navy file shows up under WW2 instead of WW1 for some reason in the Australian archives, but it does show the same date and place of birth. It shows he joined the RAN on 13.9.16 for a period of 7 years and also says "RN service not known". While it mentions his scars, it doesn't mention tattoos. However its clearly the same person given the DOB and the change over date being not long after Jutland. He received a hurt certificate in 1918, so presumably saw out the war on HMAS Australia.

 

I am wondering if anyone could tell me if there might be any other British records for him ? I am not very familiar with the British Records system, so thought I would be better asking. I can see that he is going to be a mystery man as I can find no Australian birth certificate. I did of course wonder if he was in fact British given that he is born in 1893 and in 1915 is serving in the Royal Navy. But what British man would have the Australian coat of arms tattooed on his chest ?

[Farkas]

On 21/05/2024 at 04:49, Medaller said:

Hello everyone,

It's been a long time since I have been here, I used to collect Soviet medals and orders and Australian WW1 and 2 medals.

 

But today it's a personal one that's related to the Royal Navy. I know very little about RN records, so am hoping to get some information as to whether there is anymore out there than what I have found. But to the story........

 

I have spent a lot of time on my family tree. Years. But there is one branch that has constantly alluded me. It's the question of who my paternal grandfathers father is.

 

 

My grandfathers birth certificate had very little information, but I have just finally got his brothers certificate after having to wait for the 100 year anniversary of his birth (Australian law). Finally I got something that gave me a break. Henry Joseph Rawlings. I have found the man, but many parts are missing.

 

The Henry Joseph Rawlings in question was (allegedly) born on 20 December 1893 in Melbourne, Australia. However I cannot find a birth certificate for him.

What I did find was a WW1 document that shows that he was a Stoker 1st Class on HMS Tiger during the Battle Of Jutland. He was severely wounded on 31 May 1916 and according to the document was transferred to the Royal Australian Navy and on to HMAS Australia. There is some other writing that I cant make out.

 

I know that this is my great grandfather due to a paper trail. He signed a child maintenance agreement in 1923 in regards to my grandfather and his brother, but skipped almost straight away.

In 1929, a warrant went out for his arrest as he owed about 230 pounds (an amount that I once worked out means that he either never paid a cent or maybe made one or two payments). His police description states that he is a ships fireman and has a large coat of arms tattooed on his chest. The WW1 RN file states he has the Australian coat of arms tattooed on his chest.

 

His Royal Australian Navy file shows up under WW2 instead of WW1 for some reason in the Australian archives, but it does show the same date and place of birth. It shows he joined the RAN on 13.9.16 for a period of 7 years and also says "RN service not known". While it mentions his scars, it doesn't mention tattoos. However its clearly the same person given the DOB and the change over date being not long after Jutland. He received a hurt certificate in 1918, so presumably saw out the war on HMAS Australia.

 

I am wondering if anyone could tell me if there might be any other British records for him ? I am not very familiar with the British Records system, so thought I would be better asking. I can see that he is going to be a mystery man as I can find no Australian birth certificate. I did of course wonder if he was in fact British given that he is born in 1893 and in 1915 is serving in the Royal Navy. But what British man would have the Australian coat of arms tattooed on his chest ?

There are some great files at the National Archive. This is a link to to a page listing the hundreds of different categories relating to the Navy.

 

https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/search/results/?search_options=on&_q=Navy+records

 

The site has many more records to look through.

 

This is a link to a search results page using his name… 👇

 

https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/results/r?_q=Henry+Joseph+Rawlings&_sd=&_ed=&_hb=
 

this is one of the results 

 

The download of files is free, though it says 3.50 - that is avoidable..

it is free if you sign up, which itself is free and easy 👇👇
 

Cheers

tony 🍻

[Farkas]

Just thought I’d add this 👇

it’s one of the files in the search result above…

 

 

tony 🍻

[Medaller]

Thanks for the reply and sorry it's late. While I checked back once, I didn't think to get a notification for replies.

 

I have come across those files and I fear that's about all there is though I will go right through the link you provided.

 

What I have found out is that after being seriously wounded on HMS Tiger at the Battler of Jutland, he was transferred to the Royal Australian Navy and on to the flagship battle cruiser HMAS Australia. He then spent a relatively boring time for the rest of the war and did not return to Australia until 1919. There the boredom ended.

 

First port of call was Fremantle, Western Australia where they got 2 days leave. After being treated very well by the locals, the men made a request that the ship stay in port an extra day to allow the people of Fremantle to visit so the men could reciprocate the kindness shown. They got a fairly curt no from the captain that did not go down well.

 

Things went pair shaped when some men and stokers refused to work, the was a big stand off and things got nasty. Some men disguised their faces. It was called a mutiny and 6 ringleaders were arrested and about 35 supporters arrested. Rawlings was not one of them, as I found a listing of the men in the Australian archives. After the Fremantle mutiny, the ship was destined for Adelaide, Melbourne, and then the court martial of the men at Sydney. The night before the ship left for Sydney, Rawlings and 7 other men escaped the ship at Melbourne and deserted. Amazingly, one of the men was one of the six ringleaders in the ships prison.

 

Rawlings went to ground in Melbourne for as couple of months, he then met my great grandmother (who was married) and had a 3 month affair with her before her husband found out and filed for divorce. My grandfather was conceived in that 3 month period.

 

I found a document in the Australian archives that shows that Rawlings applied and got his deferred Navy pay after the Australian Government cancelled all warrants for deserters in late 1922.

 

I am presuming his date of birth is false, but cannot find one anywhere despite a lot of looking.

 

I am just wondering if anyone who has more experience than me at reading old documents (and possibly naval terms) might be able to have a crack at what is written on the document that farkas has attached. I have tried to clean it up as best as possible and I have cut the section out I am interested in. It's the section under "Remarks".

 

Thanks for any help, and thank you farkus, I will see if I can find anything else in the link.

Edited July 25 by Medaller

[Farkas]

Hi Medaller,

great story! Don’t blame you for wanting to dig into it.

 

I’m not sure what you have seen already so I’ll keep sharing links just in case.

 

I found this

 

link to a page at the IWM

https://livesofthefirstworldwar.iwm.org.uk/lifestory/6512153

It gives his 🇬🇧Royal Navy

service number as

SS116794

service dates as

4/11/15 to 1/6/16

 

 

 

https://vwma.org.au/explore/people/941421

 

There is Next of Kin named above

Florence Baker. 
 

There was a

Florence May Baker 

born - 15 March 1895,

born - Victoria, Australia (same as Henry)

 

But though not common, she’s not the only one…

 

I don’t even know if it is relevant but still, does the Florence Baker name mean anything to you? 

Last for now 

https://www.jutlandcrewlists.org

if you want to contact this group, I’m sure they would be interested in helping. An interesting site which does have Henry on its list for HMS Tiger.

 

Cheers 

tony 🍻

 

pS I can decipher a lot of the remarks section but not finished yet.., 👍

[Medaller]

Thanks for all the info Tony. I have come across most of it but it hasn't lead to anything new unfortunately.

This man has driven me almost insane since my grandfather died in 2007. My grandmother had died 3 years earlier and they were intensely secretive people and my father and his sister had no extended family at all. So I started digging after my grandfathers death.

 

My grandmothers father was murdered in a triple workplace incident in 1940 in Melbourne, which led to her estrangement from her family. But my grandfathers story was so much harder as his mother lied on just about every form and document there was.

 

I also want to find out more about Rawlings, particularly about his family and ancestry because it directly affects my name.

When Rawlings jumped ship in Melbourne after the mutiny in 1919, he then met my grandfathers mother. She was married, but took off with Rawlings and was pregnant within 2 months with my grandfather being born in mid 1920. There were plenty of lies on my grandfathers birth certificate due to Rawlings being a fugitive, but my grandfather was born and registered with the Rawlings surname. Three years later (1923), his brother, also fathered by Rawlings, was officially born a Rawlings. Rawlings signed a child support agreement with my grandfathers mother, but then took off, the next I know of him is he is arrested on a child support warrant in Sydney in 1929. My grandfathers mother had remarried and I am presuming her new husband encouraged her to chase him for the money.

 

That same year she remarried, 1929, my grandfather and his brother started using their stepfathers surname even though he did not adopt them. My grandfather then went through life, serving in the Middle East and North Africa in WW2, getting married, the birth of my father in 1943 (with the stepfathers surname) and my father passing on that surname to me when I was born.

 

In 2004, three years before my grandfather died, he was contacted by the police in regards to his identity. Technology had caught up with him and he was told that he was illegally using a false name and that he either needed to revert to his birth name of Rawlings or go through the process of changing his name to the one he had. He was pretty upset about it all, he went through the paperwork to keep his current name. He couldn't see the point in changing his name at the age of 84 after using it for 75 years.

 

So I have a surname that doesn't mean much to me, as it has nothing to do with me at all. After recently finally finding out all this information, I do intend to change my surname to Rawlings. But I would love to find out more about him, hopefully I can find his real date of birth which will lead to finding his family. I have done Ancestry DNA (and have a family tree of 30,000 people) but there is just nothing that comes up with Rawlings in regards to matches apart from some unknown very distant matches. I can only guess that he was end of the line for his family......I have DNA tested my father, his sister and even tracked down my grandfathers brother's son who agreed to do DNA at my cost to help out and I can't believe it has drawn basically nothing (apart from showing that my grandfather and his brother defiantly have the same father.)

 

Anyway, sorry about the rave on there, 15+ years of searching mostly on false information has near driven me insane

I wish Rawlings had of joined the AIF or something as their records are great. Naval records are so scant, there just isn't much in them.

 

I did come across the Florence Baker link, it comes from Rawlings Royal Australian Navy file for WW1 which for some reason is listed under WW2. It actually has an address for Florence Baker as she is listed as "friend" under next of kin.

I think it refers to a UK address in Bristol, I will attach it. It's interesting that the RAN state his RN service is unknown when it is very well known (how many Australian served at Jutland ?) and strangely they list every scar he has but not one of his tattoos.

Thankfully the RN did, as they matched the description on the child support warrant.

 

Thanks again for your efforts. Even though it's mostly stuff I have seen, it is very helpful as it shows me I am not missing other possible sources of information. Cheers, Andrew

Edited July 29 by Medaller