You’re very likely to find ancestors in our new Merchant Navy Seamen records because Britain had one of the largest merchant fleets in the world. The workforce on these vessels was a casual, ‘jobbing workforce’ so in any one year as many as 1.5 million people could be employed in the Merchant Navy.

We’ve spotted a number of celebrities and their ancestors in the records – take a look at who we’ve found!

Have you found any of your own ancestors?

Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen

Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen's grandfather, a 3rd Officer - please click to enlarge

You might remember that Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen discovered that his maternal grandfather Ronald Ernest Wilks was a merchant seaman in his Who Do You Think You Are? episode. Well here he is! Ronald was born on 13th August 1898 in Newport and was employed as a 3rd Officer on three vessels between 1920 and 1921. His record includes a photograph showing that flamboyant hairstyles seemed to run in the family!



Norman Wisdom

Norman Wisdom, a cabin boy - please click to enlarge

Did you know that Norman Wisdom was once a merchant seaman? Here we see that Norman Joseph Wisdom, born on 4th February 1915 in London, once worked as a cabin boy on SS Mandy Count. Norman was recorded as having hazel eyes, brown hair and a pale complexion. You’ll also see an early autograph at the bottom!



Jimmy Savile

Jimmy Savile's brother, an ordinary seaman - please click to enlarge

Jimmy Savile’s brother John Henry Savile was also a merchant seaman and can be seen here telling a porkie pie about his age. John is recorded as having been born on 24th May 1918 in Leeds, though our birth records reveal that he was actually born a year later in 1919! John worked as an ordinary seaman on SS Firby and has signed his name at the bottom of the record. He was recorded as being 5’5’’ tall with brown eyes, fair hair, a fair complexion and a scar on the crown of his head.

We hope you’re enjoying searching the new Merchant Navy Seamen records at findmypast.co.uk! We thought we’d share a few of the most interesting records we’ve found in the collection with you - first for a ’show and tell’ are the youngest and oldest seamen we’ve been able to find.

Be sure to let us know if you’ve found any who are older or younger!



Youngest seamen

Archie Kerr, a 12 year old ordinary seaman - please click to enlarge

Archie Kerr was just 12 years old and is the youngest seaman we’ve found in the records. He was born in Beith and worked as an ordinary seaman on the Glaisdale.

Eric Granville Abbott, a 13 year old deck boy - please click to enlarge

Eric Granville Abbott was 13 years old. He was born on 15th May 1905 in Leytonstone and was employed as a deck boy on the Highland Laddie in 1919. His record includes a photo and tells us that he was 5’6’’ tall with fair hair and blue eyes. His next of kin was listed as being George Walton Abbott – perhaps his father?

Oldest seamen

George Field, a 78 year old steward - please click to enlarge

At 78 years old, George Field is the oldest seaman we’ve found in the records – and his record includes a photo! He was born on 9th April 1843 in London and worked as a Steward. A note on his record tells us that he died on 18th December 1929. He served on a whopping eight different vessels, the majority of which are recorded by number rather than name. You can use the CLIP website to find out which ships these numbers refer to.

John Prosser, a 64 year old boatswain - please click to enlarge

John Prosser is the second oldest marine we’ve found, at 64 years old. He was born on 24th March 1857 in Milford Haven and was employed as a boatswain on the Norman Monarch in 1921. His record includes a lovely photograph too.

We’ve just added records for 270,000 British merchant-ship’s crew members for the period 1861-1913. These records are indexes to original crew-list documents, which hold the employment details of these men and women. Altogether they reference around 30,000 lists.

Original crew-list documents are not online, but if you find an ancestor listed, you can order the relevant document from the repositories that store them around the country and in Canada. Full details on how to locate the original crew-list documents are found on the crew lists search page.

Please bear in mind that the online indexes represent only a fraction of the records available. Many have not yet been transcribed.

Find your seafaring ancestors on the crew lists now