Writer in H M Dockyard

One line of my mother's family came from Portsmouth and many of the men were employed in and around the Dockyard. One of them gave his occupation in 1911 as 'First Class Writer H M Dockyard Portsmouth'. A thread on Rootsweb suggests that this was a rank in the Royal Navy. A second ancestor, Arthur Beagley Wilks, is mentioned with about a dozen others in the Edinburgh Gazette for 7 June 1921, p. 956, who were all appointed to the position of Writer in H M Dockyards and Naval Establishments.

Arthur Beagley Wilks was the only one of his family to have been born in Malta, on 29 December 1893. I found his date of birth in the Civil Service evidence of age section on Findmypast. The image shows a copy of his full birth certificate, annotated '19 February 1921'. So, Arthur had to provide a copy of his birth certificate to get the post of Writer - a Civil Service appointment. Would that have been usual for the Royal Navy?

 

In his book Ancestral Trails, Mark Herber says that the Civil Service Commission required evidence of age from its formation in 1855, for pension purposes. My great grandfather by adoption, John Hemlin, appeared in the 1891 census as a pensioner and dockyard writer and in 1881 as a marine pensioner. His son-in-law Silas Emmanuel Wilkes was not in that line of work.

 

Thank you for that, Jeremy - and welcome to the forum. There was a recent posting about Greenwich pensioners which I have only just explored and found my 2xgt-grandfather's record in the British Royal Navy personnel 1831 record set on Findmypast. He joined the RN in 1830 and in 1831 was on board the Rainbow as carpenter's mate in Malta and Corfu. The Malta link is interesting as he was Arthur Beagley Wilks' grandfather.