Catalogue description Captain M J Parkes-Buchanan RN

Microfilm copy of his ts memoir (183pp), written in 1967 - 1968, covering his training as a cadet in the Royal Naval Colleges Osborne and Dartmouth (1910 - 1913) and in the training cruiser HMS CORNWALL (January - July 1914); his appointment as a midshipman in the cruiser HMS MINERVA on the outbreak of war which, after being deployed on patrol and shipping examination duties in the Eastern Atlantic (August - October 1914 was attached to the Egypt and East Indies Squadron in the Gulf of Aqaba to assist in the defence of the Suez Canal (November 1914 - February 1915) and in the preparations for the Gallipoli campaign (March - April 1915); his service as a midshipman in the destroyer HMS WEAR on patrol and other duties in the Gulf of Smyrna and off the Dardanelles (April 1915 - January 1916) and in the battleship HMS AGAMEMNON in the Eastern Mediterranean, including the destruction of Zeppelin LZ85 over Salonika (January - May 1916); in HMS WEAR again as a junior officer, principally in the Gulf of Smyrna (July 1916 - (?) May 1917), in the Eastern Mediterranean in the destroyers HMS GRASSHOPPER ((?) May - September 1917) and HMS MARTIN (March - September 1918) and in command of the sloop HMS VERONICA (October - December 1918); as a junior officer in the Admiralty yacht HMS ENCHANTRESS based on Portsmouth (1919 - 1920) and as a junior hydrographer in the survey ship HMS KELLETT in Home waters (1920-1921) and his training and specialisation as a gunnery officer and service in the Atlantic Fleet in the battleship HMS RAMILLIES (1924 - 1925) and the cruiser HMS CENTAUR (1927 - 1928); and of a ts memoir (109pp), written in 1958, recording his service in the Naval Ordnance Inspection Department, citing many instances of the lack of recognition accorded to the Department by the Royal Navy, and describing in particular his appointments as Deputy Inspector of Naval Ordnance, Home Fleet (1939 - 1941), Inspector of Naval Ordnance at Manchester (1942 - 1944) and London (1944 - 1945) and as a member of the Ordnance Board (1946 - 1949); together with his original ms Midshipman's Journal, in two volumes (142pp and 212pp), kept in HMS MINERVA and HMS WEAR from August 1914 - May 1915 and including a copy of MINERVA's ship's magazine for December 1915 and an account of the remainder of his service at sea during the First World War written in November 1919.

RWAS

IWM Photographic Archive (Q 98162 - Q 98270 and HU 25898)

Parkes-Buchanan, Maurice John, 1897-1983, Captain RN

Buchanan, Maurice John, Parkes-, 1897-1983, Captain RN

Unrestricted

• Dardanelles, Ottoman Empire
• Egypt
• Naval personnel
• First World War, 1914-1918
• Dardanelles campaign, 1915-1916