Captain R R Ramsbotham OBE RN

Ms Midshipman's Journal covering his service in the Atlantic Fleet battleship HMS ALBEMARCLE (1908 - 1909) and in the Home Fleet in the battleship HMS KING EDWARD VII (1909), the cruisers HMS SAPPHIRE and HMS BELLONA (1909 - 1910) and the battleship HMS VANGUARD (1910 - 1911); together with a ts memoir (150pp), written in 1968, covering his training as a cadet at the Royal Navy Colleges Osborne and Dartmouth (1904 - 1908) and his experiences as a midshipman and junior officer before and during the First World War, in which he served in the battleship HMS QUEEN (1914) and as a navigating officer in destroyers attached to the Dover Patrol, the Grand Fleet and the Harwich Force, but recording in more detail his service as the Navigating Officer of the destroyer HMS STUART and her participation in the evacuation of White Russian troops and refugees from Black Sea ports (1919 - 1920), the cruiser DIOMEDE on the China Station (1922 - 1925) and the aircraft carrier HMS EAGLE on the Mediterranean Station (1926), his appointment as the executive Commander of the aircraft carrier HMS HERMES on the China Station (1927 - 1929), his command of the Royal New Zealand Navy sloop LABURNUM in Pacific waters (1931 - 1938) and his appointments as King's Harbour Master and Captain of the Dockyard, Sheerness (1935 - 1938) and Inspector of Coastguard for Yorkshire and Lincolnshire (1938 - 1951). The memoirs include brief but useful references to several distinguished flag officers under whom he served and interesting analyses of disciplinary problems, notably the incidence of venereal disease and homosexuality, which he encountered in HERMES and LABURNUM respectively.

Unrestricted