I'm trying to fill in some details for a Robet BECKETT who died during WW 1. He is commemorated in the UK on a Lancashire village memorial tablet which shows him as a "Fireman Australian Mercantile Marine". He seems to have died in the Haslar Naval Hospital near Portsmouth (England) and he is buried in the local church in Lancashire. He obviously has some connection with the village but the problem is that there are two Robert Becketts born around the date with strong connections to the village (they are actually cousins). One disappears from UK census records after 1901, the other is in the 1911 but that is as far as we can get. A Robert Beckett appears in shipping records in June 1911 travelling from London to Freemantle, he is described as a "miner". Neither of the two I have identified had occupations related to mining. I realise that other Robert Becketts will have sailed to Australia and that this one may be a red herring, his age is not shown on the shipping record. Are there any Australian records that would help me identify Robert the Naval Fireman (I'm assuming Fireman here is a Stoker). I've Googled for ideas but most Naval stuff doesn't include the Mercantile service. It does seem a bit odd that if he was in the Mercantile service he died in a military hospital but that may relate to his injuries as Haslar seems to be a specialist Naval unit. -- BobC ========== Change "null" to "news" in reply address.