- Author
- Book reviewer
- Subjects
- Biographies and personal histories, Book reviews, Royal Navy
- Tags
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- RAN Ships
- None noted.
- Publication
- September 2007 edition of the Naval Historical Review (all rights reserved)
After the war, an Australian organisation took over responsibility for the production of the local Australian Navy List, and of course, computerised the whole operation. Sadly, for quite some time, this Australian version, significantly smaller of course, suffered from a number of errors and inaccuracies. Hopefully, the computer glitches have, over time, been ironed out.
If my memory serves me correctly, during my sea time, we didn’t use our copy of the Navy List a lot, apart from checking the spelling of names and the list of decorations for correspondence, and for working out who saluted whom when ships passed in the light of day. Today, at the Society, our copy of the 1943 Navy List gets quite frequent use, mainly in providing answers for relatives and descendants seeking clarification of the history of their forebears.
This is not the sort of book review which offers tantalising comments about clever plot developments, or promises new revelations about our history. It is exactly what the title suggests, a list, or more precisely, a gathering of lists. In fact, the List of Contents alone runs to nearly eight tightly packed, two-column pages. I am in awe of the organisation which put it, its predecessors and its successors together. If you are seeking an hour or two of quiet reminiscence, it is well worth making a date with the Society, to visit our Library, and join me in appreciation of an amazing achievement.
(Editors Note: Since the publication of this Book Review, substantial progress has been made to digitize back copies of the RN Navy List. Those interested in this subject might care to visit the Internet Archive and search on “Navy List”.)