Navy Records Society

📣 The latest from our Online magazine: buff.ly/vaw8QAj

This article introduces a letter written on 30 August 1914 by Stoker Thomas Victor Rayson of HMS Falmouth, offering a rare firsthand account of naval warfare at the outbreak of the First World War.

#WW1 #navyhistory #royalnavy #maritimehistory

#OnthisDay in 1852, HMS Birkinhead sank near Cape Town, South Africa and gave rise to the naval tradition of "women and children first" in the event of wrecking.

Image: Wiki Commons
#navalhistory #onthisdayinhistory #victoriannvavy #royalnavy

Our latest online magazine article explores shipbuilding in the 9th to 11th centuries. Using evidence from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, it challenges the idea that King Alfred the Great founded the English navy. 📃

Read now 🔗 : buff.ly/PIpN9ys
#navalhistory #anglosaxon #militaryhistory #medieval #NRS

#Onthisday in 1939 the German warship Admiral Graf Spee was sunk after the Battle of the River Plate.

Read more on the Navy Records Society's Online Magazine:
www.navyrecords.org.uk/magazine_pos...
Written by Marcus Faulkner

#navalhistory #navyhistory #militaryhistory #ww2 #worldwar2 #OTD

‘It appears unfortunate to me…’ Squaring a circle in the Atlantic war of words – The Navy Records Society A flurry of letters, minutes and memoranda between the C-in-C United States Fleet (COMINCH), Admiral Ernest J. King and Admiral Sir Percy Noble, head of the British Admiralty Delegation (BAD) and…

‘It appears unfortunate to me…’ Squaring a circle in the Atlantic war of words – The Navy Records Society's Members Blog
buff.ly/ywptAEf

#navalhistory #militaryhistory #WW2 #royalnavy #history

Invasion or Annexation? How Heligoland became Britain’s smallest island possession. – The Navy Records Society In the early 1870s, a little-known engagement between a Royal Navy squadron of turret ironclads and a German invasion force bound for England ended in confusion and catastrophe for the invaders amid…

Invasion or Annexation? How Heligoland became Britain’s smallest island possession. – The Navy Records Society's Members Blog buff.ly/J3Rejxj

#navalhistory #militaryhistory #napoleonic #royalnavy #history

#OnThis Day in 1941 HMS Ark Royal, Britain’s first modern fleet carrier, sank after a torpedo attack by the German submarine U-81.

Read more on The Navy Records Society Members' Blog: www.navyrecords.org.uk/members_blog...

#navyrecords #navalhistory #ww2 #royalnavy #OTD #hmsarkroyal

Rear Admiral John Lang:‘Even a casual glance at this collection of letters is a joy. It is an extraordinary record of a cadet and midshipman in the Victorian Navy and opens a window of life in an era when the passage of time is marked by the receipt and dispatch of periodic letters to and from home’

Also, discover the NRS online magazine, where John has contributed a 3-part series of articles on the letters written by Midshipman Brian Godfrey-Faussett when serving on board HMS Dido in 1880: buff.ly/8eZyw9Q

#royalnavy #navyhistory #navalhistory #19thcentury #victorian #historybook #publishing

📚 New book by our member: The Dido Papers: the letters of A Victorian Midshipman
by John Johnson-Allen

HMS Dido went to West Africa, South and East Africa, the letters recount Bryan Godfrey Faussett's experiences as a young man between June 1879 - April 1881: buff.ly/vAtRZbs

#newbook #navyhistory

The Diary of T.F. Richards Part 4: Christmas Island, Borneo, Sumatra and Singapore, 1907 – The Navy Records Society These fascinating descriptive passages are transcribed extracts from the diaries of Thomas F. Richards who, in 1906, was a Royal Navy Artificer (Engineer) Warrant Officer aged 30. This is the third…

Latest from the Navy Records Society's Online Magazine: The Diary of T.F. Richards Part 4: Christmas Island, Borneo, Sumatra and Singapore, 1907. By Jane Wickenden.
Read it here: buff.ly/vY37PLS

#navalhistory #navyrecords #history #hmskent #battleship #monmouthclass #asia #britishempire #royalnavy

Books – The Navy Records Society The Navy Records Society publishes an annual volume in print and online. Each work presents previously unpublished documents on naval history, edited, introduced and given an analytical commentary by…

⚓ Did you know the Navy Records Society has published over 170 annual volumes in print and online? 📚

Discover the full collection: buff.ly/xuKTHBk

#navyrecords #navalhistory #navyhistory #NRS #history #research #royalnavy #trafalgar #hms #nelson #ww2 #tudor #ww2 #student #academic

The 1797 Naval Mutinies and Popular Protest in Britain ​This book offers a holistic re-evaluation of the Royal Navy mutinies at Spithead and the Nore in 1797, and their significance for British society.

📚 New book by our #NRS member

Callum Easton's compelling first book, 'The 1797 Naval Mutinies and Popular Protest in Britain: Negotiation through Collective Action', has been published by Palgrave Macmillan: link.springer.com/book/10.1007...

#navyhistory#navalhistory #navalrecords #18thcentury

Trafalgar Eyewitness Account by the Assistant-Surgeon of H.M.S Swiftsure – The Navy Records Society This letter by Robert Hilton appears to be a collaborative account of the engagements of Trafalgar, as a surgeon’s mate would have been below deck during the battle.  Each of the surviving letters…

The Battle of Trafalgar took place #OnThisDay in 1805 ⚓
Discover an Eyewitness Account of the battle by the Assistant-Surgeon of H.M.S Swiftsure – in The Navy Records Society's online magazine: buff.ly/iGWYEvn

#Navyrecords #navalhistory #OTD #Trafalgar #nelson #Admiralty #historic

Hunting The Bismarck Publishing naval history since 1893.

Or listen to the original recording on Soundcloud:
buff.ly/fJKnoSp

#Navyrecords #navyhistory #navalhistory #ww2 #ww2history #ww2navy #Bismark #hmshood #NRS #NavyRecordsSociety

📜 ⚓ Coming to Navy Records Online: The Broomfield Tapes
The first transcript and discussion of this recording is now available to members: buff.ly/8oVs0hx

'Bill' Broomfield, a leading seaman aboard HMS Ramillies during #WW2 recorded his experience in 1987 - Alex Clarke reviews them for us

Last month, we commemorated the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War

In our Members' Blog Neil Jackson looked at a letter from HMS Swiftsure, which describes the action taken to reclaim the prized colonial possession of Hong Kong: buff.ly/12OhTLE

#VJDay #WW2 #navyhistory #Navyrecord

Sir Benjamin Bathurst: In Memoriam – The Navy Records Society

It is with great regret that the Society reports the death on October 12th of Admiral of the Fleet Sir Ben Bathurst (1936-2025), President of our Society between 1997 and 2014.

www.navyrecords.org.uk/members_blog...

⚓📜 Latest on the Navy Records Online Magazine: ‘Blood even ran out of the voice pipe’: The Broomfield Tapes Part 1 – Hunting The Bismarck – buff.ly/8oVs0hx

Recordings from Bill W.E. Broomfield, seaman aboard HMS Ramillies, recounting the hunting of the Bismarck in May 1941

#WW2 #navyhistory #NRS

#OnThisDay in 1800: the Armed Cutter, Rose, became the first British ship to have been captured by the Dutch in the War of the Second Coalition #napoleonicwars whilst on a routine voyage.

Read an original account of the incident on the #NRS Online Magazine: buff.ly/4ArE3LY

#Navalhistory #OTD

#OnThisDay in 1748, British naval forces, led by Admiral Sir Charles Knowles, clashed with a Spanish fleet in the Battle of Havana - the last major action of the War of Jenkins Ear (1739-1748).

#navalhistory #navyrecords #OTD #onthisdayinhistory #ageofsail #britishnavy #history

Latest on the Navy Records Online Magazine: buff.ly/AzURZW8
This article introduces letters written by Midshipman Brian Godfrey-Faussett when serving on board HMS Dido in 1880.

#navyrecords #navalhistory #victoriannavy #nauticalhistory #royalnavy #navalpapers #navalservice #NRS #historymagazine

Why did the Ark Royal Sink? – The Navy Records Society On 14th November 1941 HMS Ark Royal,  Britain’s first modern fleet carrier, sank after a torpedo attack by the German submarine U-81. The following year, acclaimed war correspondent Sir Herbert…

Why did the Ark Royal Sink? – The Navy Records Society Members' Blog

On 14th nov 1941, Britain’s first modern fleet carrier was sunk after a torpedo attack by the German submarine U-81. Our member Paul Harrison explores records of the sinking.

#navyrecords #navalhistory #ww2

Highlights of Navy Records Online Magazine: Ronnie Russell’s Account of Operation Pedestal, 1942. Part 1: Glasgow to Gibraltar.

He served aboard the British cargo ship MV Clan Ferguson, which was sunk during the operation off the tip of Tunisia. Read More: buff.ly/diSvlqq

#RoyalNavy #NRS #WW2

Highlights of Navy Records Online Magazine: Francis Martin Leake’s letters to his mother Part 2: Sub-Lieutenant & Lieutenant 1891-93

Letters sent home that record the coming-of-age of a young naval officer, whose career in the #RoyalNavy would see him become Vice-Admiral

Read more: buff.ly/ix0wB16

The Navy of the Lancastrian Kings: Accounts and Inventories of William Soper, Keeper of the King’s Ships, 1422-1427 – The Navy Records Society A wonderful new online historical resource has just been launched: The Merchant Fleet of Late Medieval and Tudor England, 1400–1580. This database transforms our understanding of the evolution of…

Discover The Navy Records Society's annual volumes online: The Navy of the Lancastrian Kings: Accounts and Inventories of William Soper, Keeper of the King’s Ships, 1422-1427 – Vol 123 (1982), Dr S. Rose buff.ly/xvZsvay

#NavyHistory #RoyalNavy #DutchWars #NavyRecords #Maritime #History

Highlights of Navy Records Online Magazine: The Narrative of William Owen, Part 3: Health and Victuals on HMS Tyger (1754)

The narrative relies on the eyewitness account Owen gives of the British struggle in the years 1755 to 1761 against Indian rulers and the French.

Read More: buff.ly/FwpWIMD

Corrigenda to Letters and Papers Relating to the First Dutch War 1652-54 – The Navy Records Society In 1930 when the Papers on the Dutch War were approaching completion, Mr A.C. Dewar was asked by the Council of the Navy Records Society, to look through the Dutch transcripts with a view to the…

Discover The Navy Records Society's annual volumes online: Corrigenda to Letters and Papers Relating to the First Dutch War 1652-54 – Vol 69 (1932), A.C. Dewar buff.ly/V2rLa26

#NavyHistory #RoyalNavy #DutchWars #NavyRecords #Maritime #History

Highlights of Navy Records Online Magazine: The Papers of Nelson’s Lieutenant, John Yule Part 1: 1801

Letters written by John Yule, who fought at both the battle of the Nile in 1798 & Trafalgar in 1805, and was a member of Nelson’s personal staff for several years.

Read more: buff.ly/EN57ImG

No More Napoleons, How Britain Managed Europe from Waterloo to World War One by Prof. Andrew Lambert This event marks the first public launch of the Laughton & Corbett Centre within the School of Security Studies at King’s College London. The Centre aims to link academics, policymakers,…

📚 New book by our member

'No More Napoleons, How Britain Managed Europe from Waterloo to World War One' by Prof. Andrew Lambert

Giving the 2025 annual Peter N. Davies Memorial Lecture (#BCMH @NauticalHistory), Lambert launched his book at @warstudies : buff.ly/q8d1g36

#navalhistory #NRS #history