Merchant seamen honoured for service

Posted by - 10 years ago

The records of merchant seamen from the time of the Great War are very limited and lacking in detail, but one source which at least identifies the men concerned, although gives no detail of ships served on, etc., is the record of men who were eligible for the Mercantile Marine Medal. 

To qualify for honour, a seaman had to have served at sea for at least six months during the war and to have undertaken at least one voyage through a danger zone.

These records, held at the National Archives at Kew, show the following men from Beer qualified for the medal (year of birth in brackets): John Northcott Barr (1890); Francis John Bartlett (1867); Oswald Vernon Bartlett (1900); Henry Bartlett (1895); Kenneth Bartlett (1892); Alonzo James Bond (1896); Percy Harold Chapple (1898); Cecil Arthur Franklin (1900); Lancelot Ralph Jones (1901); James David Lockyer (1894); George Henry Mars (1859); Peter Newton (1873); William George Northcott (1897); Harold Northcott (1899); William George Potter (1895); Edward Richard Thorn (1879); Arthur Westlake (1884); and Percival George Westlake (1892).