Hi List, I am trying to find out more about the naval career of my ancestor Frederick Thompson, Lieutenant in the Royal Navy born 1781 died 1833. I have a copy of his service record between 1803-1815. His rank on the first entry is A.B serving on the 'Argo' in the West Indies. I am puzzled by the different ranks or positions he held as there seems no particular order. After the first voyage there were another 12 ships listed with 14 voyages (twice on the same 2 ships). His ranks ranged from Midshipman, Acting Master, Masters Mate and Acting 2nd Master. These ranks were not in any particular order. None of the rank state Lieutenant, but he passed to Lieutenant at Sheerness 6th November 1811. This information I found at the National Archives, but it was a long time ago and I cannot remember which series this statement about passing to Lieutenant would have been. The age of 34 seems to be young to retire from the Navy unless he was wounded and I'm not sure where I might find this sort of information. The only documents I have about Frederick's career is his service record National Archives No. ADM 9/3 RP/0885. There is a number at the top of the document 4534 and wonder is anyone knows what this number signifies? The other document relating to his career is item ref: ADM 45/3/588 which states that; "Frederick Thompson Lieutenant who died 22 July 1833. Notes on executors application for money owed by the Royal Navy." Can anyone tell me if Frederick may have continued in the Royal Navy after 1815 when the last entry of a voyage was mentioned? I do have details of his wife and children, but very little about his life between 1815-1833 although I know he lived in Lambeth, Surrey from the entries of his children's baptisms. Any help would be much appreciated. kind regards Valerie Richards

To state the obvious, 1815 was the year of Waterloo, the end of the French wars, and many many naval officers found themselves turfed out or on half-pay at best as the fleet was largely laid up. Mr Thompson's age, inclination and specific junior rank had very little to do with it. Regards Graham On Fri, Aug 30, 2013 at 7:43 PM, Paul and Valerie <[email protected]>wrote: > Hi List, > > I am trying to find out more about the naval career of my ancestor > Frederick Thompson, Lieutenant in the Royal Navy born 1781 died 1833. > > I have a copy of his service record between 1803-1815. His rank on the > first entry is A.B serving on the 'Argo' in the West Indies. I am puzzled > by the different ranks or positions he held as there seems no particular > order. After the first voyage there were another 12 ships listed with 14 > voyages (twice on the same 2 ships). His ranks ranged from Midshipman, > Acting Master, Masters Mate and Acting 2nd Master. These ranks were not in > any particular order. None of the rank state Lieutenant, but he passed to > Lieutenant at Sheerness 6th November 1811. This information I found at the > National Archives, but it was a long time ago and I cannot remember which > series this statement about passing to Lieutenant would have been. > > The age of 34 seems to be young to retire from the Navy unless he was > wounded and I'm not sure where I might find this sort of information. > > The only documents I have about Frederick's career is his service record > National Archives No. ADM 9/3 RP/0885. There is a number at the top of the > document 4534 and wonder is anyone knows what this number signifies? The > other document relating to his career is item ref: ADM 45/3/588 which > states that; > > "Frederick Thompson Lieutenant who died 22 July 1833. Notes on executors > application for money owed by the Royal Navy." > > Can anyone tell me if Frederick may have continued in the Royal Navy > after 1815 when the last entry of a voyage was mentioned? > > I do have details of his wife and children, but very little about his life > between 1815-1833 although I know he lived in Lambeth, Surrey from the > entries of his children's baptisms. > > Any help would be much appreciated. > > kind regards > Valerie Richards > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message >