Was my father a UK WW2 veteran?

Growing up here in Canada I was told my father was a Royal Navy Veteran. He never discussed it and my mother told us it was traumatic experience. There were no records ever found when he died. Recently a family member in the UK told us he was never in the Navy. My mother was devestated to think it had all been a lie. She was told he was a gunner on an aircraft carrier that had sank and was then transfered to another and became a Batman. That is what she believed. How can I find out the truth with no real information?
Any help is appreciated.

 

I can understand why your mother must have been devastated to have discovered that her husband had not told her the truth about his past. He would not be the first to have spun a dit about his service.

You can apply for his service records from the UK Veterans agency. It sounds as if you might have a claim to be his Next of Kin - if indeed his claim to have service in the RN was genuine. Details here http://www.veterans-uk.info/service_records/service_records.html

Have you contacted your UK based relatives and asked them why they think he was not in the RN. Do they have evidence that can confoirm his actual of his activities in 1939-45? Even he had not been in the Royal Navy, the story might have been true if he had been a sailor in the merchant navy. The British Merchant Navy operated the third largest aircraft carrier fleet, of MAC Carriers) after the USN and RN. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merchant_aircraft_carrier

 

Hello and welcome to the forum.

Have you or your family in the UK any photos or paperwork at all of your father? Anything you know, no matter how insignificant you may think it is, please post it here and we will try to help

Lesley

 

There are many reasons for fictitious armed forces service. One is having been rejected as medically unfit, for which there is no objective reason to be ashamed, but some people create their own problem about it.

If you can post your father's full date of birth, it can at least be determined whether he definitely was of military age during the war, and, if so, at what point he would be likely to have been called up.

 

Thank you
My mother did apply for his records from the Royal Navy and there appears to be no record of him based on his name and date of birth. Would the Merchant Navy be a diffierent set of records or would their search have included both? The veterans service link you attached did not work so I have not been able to check there yet. They did say the term Batman is actually an Army term.so that may be an avenue to explore.

 

We don't have anything here except a picture of him as a child with his father in uniform taken on the beach in Gibaltra. The picture was give to a family member and since misplaced. I know he was born in 1925 and his father and two brothers, one older one younger, served in the war but no specifics. I will enquire from family in the UK however with their age and health it will be difficult. I'll post what I find. Thanks!

 

Just to clarify.........

A batman was simply the personal servant of an officer usually from the rank of captain and above.

He was responsible for all matter concerning the general welfare of his officer from preparing his uniform to making his bed.

Rarely held in high esteem by his fellow non-ranking comrades he nevertheless was often the source of confidential information.

Just thought you might be interested

Ron

 

Yes Merchant Navy records are separate and some are held at The National Archives in Kew.
A quick fire way to check a name against WW2 service in MN would be to search their online records for WW2 Campaign medals... results also supply DOB with name.
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/records/merchant-seamen-medals-ww2.htm
The search is free, but there is a small fee for downloading the records which come in a list format - more than one name can be seen on each page paid for.

Should you find something, it might be best to also join the sister forum - a couple of the members there are what I'd consider MN experts http://ww2talk.com/forums/forum/15-war-at-sea/


Batman, as discussed on the other forum ...
http://ww2talk.com/forums/topic/3427-batman/page-2

Good luck

 

Thank you Ron I had no idea that is what it meant. Is it as was suggested, an Army term vs Naval?

 

suzanne

Wikipedia has something on the subject here:
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batman_(military)

Ron