Signalman Lewis Hale, JX/196565

You will all hear quite a bit from me in the next few days, but just as a bit of background, I am currently TRYING to write the story of my Dad's time in the Royal Navy in WW2. Provisionally entitled 'Six Years For The World', it has currently stalled as I have got as far as I can with the information I've got. I already have his official service documents, which (and this is a curiously British Naval thing) only list shore bases, no ships at all. What they DO show are the shore bases that were responsible for his pay and victualling. He died back in 1979 and most of the info I possess comes from half-remembered anecdotal stories, and it's very thin on dates, times, places and units. I have been in touch with as many agencies, forums, museums and likewise as you could imagine, and even paid a professional researcher £300 to spend two weeks and come up with nothing new.

I have been on WW2 Talk and got some useful information but the current line of enquiry I am on is regarding a voyage Dad made to the USA in May 1943 aboard Queen Mary. The ship, after initially spending some time in Bayonne dry dock, returned to the UK no doubt loaded with loads of G.I's, but my Dad wasn't on it. My brother seems to remember being told that he was in the US to 'join a ship'...my contention is that he was there to join one of the Lend-Lease ships being built in US East Coast yards. If that was the case he would probably have spent some time at HMS Asbury, an 'acquired' base on the site of two hotels at Asbury Park, New Jersey. (Yes, Springsteen fans, that one).

I was wondering if anyone on here might know of any record that may have been made of ratings passing through Asbury (I know that Alec Guinness aka Obi-Wan-Kanobi passed through as a young Naval Officer).

Thanks for your time, and hope somebody can help

 

Might be preaching to the converted here, but have you tried this site?
Family History - Royal Navy and Naval History.Net

There's also this book, published a while back.. I have a copy, so can look things up for you if needed. Not sure how much info it actually contains though-
Shore Establishments of the Royal Navy by Warlow, Ben: Near Fine Soft cover (2000) 2nd Edition | Zulu Books

 

Thanks GRW and yes, been on that site and read that book. I'm actually thinking of including a chapter about researching the book!

 

If you can make sense of it, give us a shout.

 

You may have these, but records of his arrival in New York on the Queen Mary

 

Thanks, Tamujin, all help greatly appreciated. My cousin actually unearthed this info on Ancestry - but I'd not seen these particular pages before

 

Not yet...but speaking as a Brit, how do I access them?

 

Dad survived the war, but plenty of his shipmates didn't. Thank you for honouring (excuse English spelling) them