Boy Sailors

Pardon my ignorance, but could anybody tell me when the Navy stopped recruiting 'boy sailors?' Also, when did they stop using the term?

 

In something like 1957 they changed the term "boy seaman" to "junior seaman". I believe they stopped recruiting them in 1976 when the school leaving age was risen to 16...?

 

The term was still being used in the 60s, as I enlisted as a Boy Seaman Second Class before training as a Junior Stores Assistant.

 

Just looked at my comic cuts I had a VG Supr as an R.O.1 in Dec 1958 Rates changed from Tel/Sig to RO/TO in 1958...I imagine the same applied to Boy Tels/Sigs/Seamen making them JRO/JTO/JSEA.

 

My Comic Cuts show me a J/Seaman on 8th October 1961.


Nutty

 

My S459, Certificate of Service, states I joined as a Junior Seaman 2 in June 1956.

Keep Striving.

 

When I was a boy my grandad took me to visit the grave of Jack Cornwell VC - A boy sailor. His headstone reads:

[align=center]"It is not wealth or ancestry
but honourable conduct and a noble disposition
that maketh men great"[/align]

The citation for his VC is worth reading even now almost 91 years later:-

"The instance of devotion to duty by Boy(1st Class) John Travers Cornwell who was mortally wounded early in the action, but nevertheless remained standing alone at a most exposed post, quietly awaiting orders till the end of the action, with his gun's crew dead and wounded around him. He was under 16 1/2 years old. I regret that he has since died, but I recommend his case for special recognition by justice to his memory and as an acknowledgement of the high example set by him."


RM

 

I was in Cornwell divsion at raleigh last year they have a load of things on the wall about him . Made some ver interesting reading

 

My S459 on signing on in Feb 1957 was the revised - august 1939 edition with KR's and "On entry as a Boy" but in fact first name of ship details was HMS Ganges as a Junior Seaman class 2.
Is the present S459 still made of linen? and does the RN still dish out "Hurt Certificates" [that they tried to buy back off you when you left]?
My third question is, why did they have a box " Man's signature on discharge to Pension" [which I had to sign although not going to pension]

 

Onions ---I joined in June 1956 at St Vincent -------H930
was you there --or a Ganges sprog .

And yes thats when it all changed -------- us Juniors mid 1956
with the new pay and conditions regs.
Like signing on for 9 years [CS 1]instead of the 7 and 5 or 12 years.

Pay as a junior------ between £1.11s.6d and £3.3s. 0d

That they kept back till we were 17and a half cos the hair cuts and slops for new items .


:nemo: :nemo:

 

You're showing your age Dunkers Bless! :biggrin:

The school leaving age was raised to 16 in 1973 and the Navy stopped recruiting 15 year olds from then. The Reserve and Auxiliary Forces retained the minimum joining age at 15 until the mid-late 1980s.

It formally changed over in 1956. Those who joined in January joined as Boys those who joined in December joined as Juniors. For more information see Richard Baker's Dry Ginger, a biography of Adm Sir Michael LeFanu. The rate of Junior was abolished around 1999-2000, along with the abolition of the Ordinary Rate.

 

Will not forget my first payday in 65. Marched up to the table saluted, shouted out my ships book number, and the Supply officer gave me the princely sum of £1. In was getting more than that from a part time bakers boy before I joined up. Then most of that £1 had to be spent on dhobi dust, whitening, shoe laces etc. Great days.

 

School year starting Sept 1972 was the last year you could leave in the 4th. form.

 

f...k Alan my dad was still a Virgin in 1958