Greetings cousins The NZ naval training school at Kohimarama was established in 1874, across the Auckland harbour mouth from Devonport Naval Base. It’s Internet-accessible surviving records seem to be poor, and it closed after about seven years. Would my orphaned Burgess brothers - William Henry b 1858 and Thomas Alfred b 1862 - both known to be in the Lyttelton (Christchurch) orphanage in 1873, be likely to have been sent there for naval training, or directly apprenticed to a ships’s Captain? Their father was Master Mariner Richard Plummer Burgess, drowned 1863. (I have a lot of information on Richard in the UK and Australia and NZ, so don’t spend time on him please.) If they became sailors, as family legend claims, a lot of effort fails to find them as adults. William Henry Burgess reputedly settled in Australia. I found one man who seemed possible, but he turned out to be German . . . Thomas Alfred Burgess probably married and settled in Ireland and died childless, so there’s even less chance of finding him. I’m hunting for the descendants of William, mostly to share the results of the research I have done. Their mother was fascinating Irish Famine Orphan Winifred Callaghan, sent to Australia on the Earl Grey scheme . . . . Many thanks for any ideas or suggestions Migs (Margaret) Eder, NZ.

Hi Migs Just to clarify things, the school you refer to at Kohimarama would, I should think, have been nothing to do with the Royal Navy, or the subsequent RNZN, which became independent from about 1941 onwards. So I imagine the NZ naval training school at Kohimarama must have been something set up as a private venture and would, unless it was a charity, have probably been fee paying.....perhaps preparing youngsters for the Merchant Service (MS), or if lads were exceptional, maybe preparing them for the Colonial Cadet scheme mentioned below ? Similar schools existed in England, but, with a couple of exceptions, in London and Portsmouth, were usually one man bands, with no need to maintain good records, not forgetting that in those days the sort of record keeping that we maintain today wasn't even considered, and was kept to the bare minimum, with attendance records and course work probably being maintained in a small exercise book, at best, possibly with notes regarding discipline etc. Some of these schools lasted for a few years, with others you can sometimes see them in more than one census, so they survived 10+ years, so your 7 years is probably about par for the course, as would your knowledge that it existed, but not a lot else ! In 1870 a scheme was set up by the Admiralty in London to enable Colonial Cadets to be examined by local Flag Officers to see if they were considered suitable - see : http://www.pbenyon.plus.com/Navy_List_1870/Colonial_Cadets_Entr_to_RN.html but, unless very well prepared, not the sort of thing that I would think the Burgess brothers could afford, unless there was someone with very deep pockets supporting them ? I should also perhaps note that until about 1890 the RN didn't go in for shore establishments, and all training was done on board ship, even if it was in harbour. Even to the point of lending old and retired RN ships to charities etc., or people with influence, usually with a view to training some of the lads for service in the RN or MS. Obviously it didn't always work out as hoped, but the results were usually sufficiently good for the RN to persevere with the various schemes into the 20th Century, and I seem to remember we have, or did have, one or two on the list who have personal experience of these schemes ;-) Local record offices in the UK have occasionally been able to rescue some of the material from such schemes, but they weren't around at the time, and the records usually get thrown out when relatives sort out estates, even if they've survived that long. Paul On Wed, 15 Apr 2015 09:04:55 +1200, migs via <mariners@rootsweb.com> wrote: >Greetings cousins > >The NZ naval training school at Kohimarama was established in 1874, across the Auckland harbour mouth from Devonport Naval Base. It’s Internet-accessible surviving records seem to be poor, and it closed after about seven years. > >Would my orphaned Burgess brothers - William Henry b 1858 and Thomas Alfred b 1862 - both known to be in the Lyttelton (Christchurch) orphanage in 1873, be likely to have been sent there for naval training, or directly apprenticed to a ships’s Captain? Their father was Master Mariner Richard Plummer Burgess, drowned 1863. (I have a lot of information on Richard in the UK and Australia and NZ, so don’t spend time on him please.) > >If they became sailors, as family legend claims, a lot of effort fails to find them as adults. William Henry Burgess reputedly settled in Australia. I found one man who seemed possible, but he turned out to be German . . . Thomas Alfred Burgess probably married and settled in Ireland and died childless, so there’s even less chance of finding him. > >I’m hunting for the descendants of William, mostly to share the results of the research I have done. Their mother was fascinating Irish Famine Orphan Winifred Callaghan, sent to Australia on the Earl Grey scheme . . . . > > >Many thanks for any ideas or suggestions > >Migs (Margaret) Eder, NZ. > >------------------------------- >To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to MARINERS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message 50° 33' N, 2° 26' W http://www.pbenyon.plus.com/Naval.html

See: http://dehanz.net.au/entries/kohimarama-naval-training-school/