17th October 1917. Alexander Snoad joined the Navy during the First World War, at the age of 27. Born in London, he was an ‘oil and colourman’ by occupation. His height was 5’6″ and he had brown hair, brown eyes, a ‘fresh’ complexion and a scar on his chin. After serving on three ships, with ‘very good’ conduct, he was discharged to the Royal Air Force.
1917 seems to be a year in which many men were recruited to the Navy, which would tie in with the belated introduction of a convoy system to address the threat from the German U-boats. It can only be conjectured whether Alexander returned to his former occupation, that of mixing and selling artists’ paints, after the war.
Read about my ‘ordinary people’ series here.
Got to admit that this is a nice “prompt” to creating intriguing stories too! Thanks for sharing. 😀
Yes, it could be a prompt too 🙂 I think it’s great that the Navy records included physical descriptions of the men.