Navy List Research

This website enables research on Serving, Retired and Deceased Commissioned Officers of the ROYAL NAVY, the ROYAL MARINES, the QARNNS, and the former WRNS.

A UNIQUE AND INSTANT SEARCH FACILITY

Here you can conduct your own on-line research into the information contained in the last 50 years’ serving officer Navy Lists, currently over 77,500 officers' records, which give career information on all officers who served during that period, and also on-line research information on retired officers who were listed in Retired Lists and alive in 1973, and on over 20,600 reported serving & retired officer deaths, some in the 19th Century. (See below for access to information in earlier Navy Lists)

The website also gives one click links to view 120 Navy Lists for years between 1827 and 1945 on line, and manual research, by e-mail request (voluntary donation), into the Navy Lists volumes held for 1766, 1822, 1824, 1827, 1834, 1837, 1839, 1841, 1842, 1845, 1846, 1850, 1851, 1853, 1858, 1860, 1863, 1866, 1867, 1868, 1869, 1872, 1874, 1875, 1880, 1884, 1885, 1886, 1888, 1890, 1893, 1894, 1896, 1898, 1900, 1902, 1904, 1905, 1906, 1907, 1908, 1909, 1910, 1912, 1913, 1914, 1915, 1916, 1917, 1918, 1919, 1920, 1921, 1922, 1923, 1924, 1925, 1926, 1927, 1928, 1929, 1930, 1931, 1932, 1933, 1934, 1935, 1936, 1937, 1938, 1939, 1941, 1943, 1945, 1946, 1947, 1949 and one for each subsequent year to the present.

- comparable with owning all the NAVY LISTS, with an added unique comprehensive and instant research ability for the years covered on-line.

Background:

For over 200 years a book called The Navy List has been published each year. Navy Lists contain the details of all Royal Navy, Royal Marines, Queen Alexandra's Royal Naval Nursing Service (QARNNS), and former Women's Royal Naval Service (WRNS) commissioned officers who were serving in the year of publication, and also details of the commissioned officers of their Reserve Forces.
They also contain details of the Sea Cadet Corps, the Combined Cadet Force and some of former Commonwealth Navies. These are not recorded in the database but may be manually researched. They do not include Non Commissioned Officers, or Junior Ranks and Ratings.

Career details include officers' surnames, forenames (or initials only in some cases) rank, seniority, branch and specialisation, decorations and post nominals, language qualifications and the ship or establishment in which the officer was serving at the time of each annual publication.

A similar publication called The Navy List of Retired Officers Together with Emergency List Officers was published biennially until 2007 giving information on commissioned officers who were no longer serving but were alive in the year of publication, and on those who had died since the previous edition. This List included post retirement promotions in rank, now discontinued.

These publications are expensive to buy, older editions difficult to find, and when available can be difficult to use. However, using a unique search ability online research can very quickly be conducted covering a total of over 77,500 officers. (currently covering the serving officer Navy List editions which include all commissioned officers who had served at any time in the fifty years 1966 to 2015 and the Retired Officer edition for 1966 which includes all retired officers still alive in 1966. NB. Short service officers who left the Service prior to 1973 may not be listed) and 20,600 reported officer deaths.

Subscribers may ask for manual research into Navy Lists not yet included in the online facility but held by Navy List Research.

What Research is Possible?

Any of the following can be researched:

Research in the on-line facility for 1966 to 2015 will instantly provide:

A list of all officers with a surname in common
A list of all officers with forenames in common
A list of all officers serving in one particular ship or establishment in any or all of the years covered
A list of all officers with a common rank and seniority date.
A list of all officers with a common branch and/or specialisation
A list of all officers with a common decoration or post nominal
A list of all officers' deaths reported, listed by year of death.

From any of the lists of officers researched as above, any individual officer can be selected to obtain his or her full career details as given in Navy Lists: a separate page for each officer - (ie surname, full forenames where given in the Navy List, decorations and post nominals, rank and seniority history, and the ship or establishment where they are shown as serving in the Navy List for every year covered (currently 1966-2015)

Prices

There is no charge for use of the website from June 2019, but there are operating overheads and users are invited to consider a small donation if they wish to.

Click here for some examples to experience the power of the facility.

Registered under the Data Protection Act 1998: Z9081244