His service record is very brief, not many details (not like some I have seen)
16.11.15 – 22.11.15 – Clyde R.N.V.R. Headquarters
23.11.15 – 30.11.15 – 5th Battalion C.P.
01.12.15 – 28.02.16 – Misc Sea Batt, C.P. Trans. To Sea Service
29.02.16 – Drafted from misc., Battn. Depot, (524MT) to Portsmouth
13.03.16 – Enrolment form sent to A.G.9 also employers consent.
I am able to piece some missing bits together by his postcards but I there no writings in his book for this time (he was obviously too busy fighting)
The postcards that I have from & to F.A.I. say he was on the HMS SETTSU. Granny said he was on a minesweeper that got torpedoed!!)
All reference I can find about the Settsu relate to a Japanese deadnought type battle ship of the Imperial Japanese Navy.
This Settsu was launched in 1911 and completed in 1912.
Due to world economic depression she had to acquire her 12 inch guns from Britain.
In WWI she patrolled the sea lanes of South Japan.
How odd? No mention any where of a British Naval ship of that name!
I wrote to the Imperial War Museum and they told me that ‘HMS Settsu was a 231 ton trawler, built in 1912 and hired by the Admiralty from 1914 until 1919. She was armed with one 6pdr gun’
So the Japanese Settsu was completed in 1912 and the Admiralty hired HMS Settsu in 1912?? Could this be co-incidence?
Everything I have found relates to her being in Japan during WWI…… so was F.A.I. there too? Or was his Settsu a completely different ship.
I fear I will be forever in the dark unless I get the chance to spend hours delving into the Admiralty records at Kew.
(if any one reading this can shed some light I will be forever grateful)
From F.A.I.s collection
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