My grandfather, Arthur Browne (1927-2010) worked as a ‘galley boy’ in the merchant navy in the Atlantic during World War II. We are not exactly sure how old he was when he started, but we think he was 16. In any case, the height given on his record, held in the National Archives, is 5 foot and 7 inches. This seems very poignant because as an adult he was 6 foot tall. The merchant navy employed boys from the age of 14 at this time and those designated as ‘boy’ on their records were likely to have been 14 or 15. The galley was the kitchen and so young Arthur was making a double contribution to feeding the nation: working on a ship that was importing supplies to Britain, with a role of cooking for the sailors.
Sadly, I never talked to Grandpop much about his day to day experiences in the role. Perhaps they were something like those of Peter Joseph Troy, who was a young pantry boy in the merchant navy in the 1950s. By this time, regulations required that new recruits should be at least 16. Troy’s life consisted of twelve hour working days preparing meals, moving straight from the clearing up of one meal to the preparation of the next. It was a life filled with ‘drudge and vomit'. (Troy, 2013, p. 39).
According to historian Tony Lane, food on the World War II ‘tramps’ that moved cargo from one point to another, was basic, as might be expected. There was usually no refrigeration, so after supplies in the small ice boxes had run out on each journey, the crew relied on salted meat and tinned butter. Items like eggs and fruit and vegetable could sometimes be purchased in port but often they could not.
What Grandpop did like to talk about were the dangers. German U-boats targeted supply ships in the North Atlantic and 28,000 sailors were killed in action. (Lane, 1990). One of Grandpop’s favourite stories was about when he was torpedoed at sea and woke up in a New York hospital with ‘alien’ stamped on his papers. ‘You are descended from aliens’, he used to say.
Merchant navy personnel did not always get the respect they deserved as their role was sometimes seen as less important than service in the armed forces. But of course, some people appreciated the effort: a story about a U-boat incident in the Warwickshire Evening Dispatch was answered with a letter from ‘Grateful of Birmingham’: ‘I wonder if those who waste food and petrol had a pang of shame’. Merchant seamen who served in the Battle of the Atlantic were entitled to an Atlantic Star medal after the war. We don’t think Grandpop got one and our efforts to secure one after his death came to nothing. But I think we should indeed feel grateful to him and to all the other young boys who fed the people who fed the nation.
Amy Palmer
Bibliography
Evening Dispatch (Warwickshire) (12th October 1945) Letter from ‘Grateful of Birmingham'.
Troy, P. (2013) From Pantry Boy to Steward in the British Merchant Navy 1954 – 1961. Peterborough: Self-published memoir
Lane, T. (1990) The Merchant’s Seaman’s War. Manchester: Manchester University Press
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What efforts were made to secure the medal?
In about 2010/2011, just after Arthur died, the government gave out an address for merchant sailors and their families who wished to claim these medals. Our family contacted them but we were told that no records could be found of him being on a ship. Nobody pursued it any further.
Fascinating. From the picture which I have never seen I would say he is not anymore than fifteen years old. He certainly looks like a boy in this.
I have been looking to see if I could find the date that he joined up but cannot. Grandpop would have loved this blog though Amy. The idea of children feeding the sailors who fed the nation made me want to cry. This is better than a medal.