View Full Version : Newspapers in Grimsby and Plymouth
Anyone know where online I could access papers for either in these places from about 1938 to 1948.
Or/and.....is there a list of people in the merchant navy? Who went missing or deserted during WW2.
Thanks.
I'm presuming merchant navy deserters would be included in The Police Gazette (Hue and Cry), but whilst FMP does have some issues, I don't think it has any for WW2. They are at TNA.
Whilst looking, I saw this on TNA info:
The National Archives of Australia has a large number of record series concerning ships’ crews and the merchant navy. They include registers of engagement, articles of agreement, registers of discharge, registers of deserters, and employment history records. All these record series are indexed on the RecordSearch database.
https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/SearchScreens/BasicSearch.aspx
As for newspapers, there's FMP and https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/
Thanks Merry. I’m revisiting Leslie Melhuish who has been a mystery man for years. Family stories are all over the shop, and trying to find living children is proving difficult.
I doubt they would know anyway.
The rest if his family has so many wild stories, it’s impossible to sort.
I thought if I could find a newspaper article of his going missing, either injured, captured or deserted, it might help.
He was from Grimsby but married in Plymouth. His brother and sister never knew he’d married, so that isn’t helpful.
His wife and eldest son are on the 1939 register, if that helps. Daughter is probably there too, but her entry (if it's her) is still closed.
On another thread I read that his siblings didn't seem to know much about him and even wondered if he was a sibling, yet he is on the electoral rolls with his parents in 1930/31 in Grimsby. (FMP)
Yes, and he’s on the 1911 as son with Marj his sister. Other brother wasn’t born.
It’s my sister in law’s uncle. She grew up in Grimsby thinking he was her father’s cousin and never knowing about a wife. Story is he jumped ship in Singapore and started a business.
Dumb idea during that time, but absolutely no proof. I just thought there might be an article if he deserted or was missing.
He doesn't seem to be here (I know that's not what you were thinking anyway!):
UK, Allied Prisoners of War, 1939-1945 (Ancestry)
Merry........I could never work out how to find his service record. We found it up to 1929 ( from memory). I’m assuming Merchant Navy during war, but could be Navy, only due to the Plymouth connection.
Surely there would be something, somewhere if he went missing during the war regardless of how.
Does anyone know if merchant navy is included in records of servicemen?
kiterunner
25-01-20, 10:10
Does anyone know if merchant navy is included in records of servicemen?
I don't think it would be since they weren't employed by the government.
There is a list of merchant navy. They are under the Royal Navy Reserve. But he’s not there.
One part of his ‘story’ is he took off prior to the war, but his wife was still having children....... I know.......but I don’t want to go there....lol
Merry, I found his son on 1939 register, but it’s closed. I can’t find his wife Edith. There is another Edith but she’s single.
On FMP Edith and the first son are open and the dau is closed. Here's her details in 1939:
3 Morice St, Plymouth
Edith H Melhuish 26 May 1911 Female Unpaid Domestic Duties Married
The middle initial is wrong in 1939, but the dob matched her death and the son has all the right details.
I just read the papers did not print names of deserters.
I gave no proof he deserted anyway. The story goes he took off before actually going to war, but as the third child was born 1941, I doubt that. I don’t think Edith ever remarried as her will says Melhuish.
I don’t even know if he actually disappeared at all...........but I can’t find anything after his marriage.
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