Notice Board

June 2019

Charges are no longer made for use of the website.

May 2016

The 2014 Navy List was published Spring 2014, and is incorporated in the Database.

From the 2009 edition, Navy Lists include only the first forename (only initials had been given in the 2008 edition).
From the 2017 Navy List only officers of Captain rank and above are listed.

Acting rank and language qualifications were no longer listed. Decorations are shown, but post nominals such as degrees, and professional qualifications and courses are no longer shown. Publication of the biennial Navy List of Retired and Emergency List Officers has been discontinued, the 2007 edition being the last.
These lists gave details of officers who had died since the previous edition, and so information on subsequent deaths has now to be taken from reliable and unambiguous sources, and has not been officially verified.
An approach for this information to be provided under the Freedom of Information Act, and a separate approach to the Second Sea Lord, have both been unsuccesful because it is considered that the expenditure of public money involved could not be justified.

Navy List Research currently includes the 50 Navy Lists from 1966 to 2015 online.
Subscribers may make requests by e-mail for research into the Navy Lists held from 1946 to 1965.
The website also gives one click links to view some 120 digitally copied Navy Lists for several years between 1827 and 1945, including wide coverage of both world war years.

A website containing information and many photographs of some officers and ratings/other ranks of all nationalities who served in World War 2 is available here. The source of this information is not always given, and may be unofficial or from the personnel's own families, and should accepted as such.

Information on Royal Canadian Navy officers can be found here.

Subscribers are invited to report their own history for the years not yet covered by the Navy List Research facility. This will be recorded in the individual officers’ ‘self reported history’ section, but will not alter the information taken from Navy Lists. Such information might be reflecting service as a rating/other rank before promotion. Those who wish to make such an input may e-mail it using the Contact Page. (self-reported history should not exceed 500 characters please).

Some 350 of the 3,766 plus acronyms in use over the years covered have not been defined in the Navy Lists, and are therefore listed but not defined in this facility. Feedback on the correct expansion of any such acronyms would be appreciated, but only where there is absolute certainty please! Some acronyms have up to three meanings over the period covered.

Usage changes over the years, but in general Acting and Local Rank have been used for temporary promotions for the duration of an appointment, Temporary rank is generally used for officers promoted on a temporary commission to meet a special complement requirement, and Honorary rank is awarded where appropriate on retirement to officers who have served for a period in Acting rank. The rank of Commodore is now a substantive rank, but until the mid 1990s was a temporary rank held for the duration of an appointment. Many Commodores who retired in the transition period were promoted to Honorary Commodore on retirement. Acting rank is also given to some junior officers on promotion, normally for one year, and the rank then confirmed. In these cases the acting rank is not shown in Navy List Research unless it is the final rank held in the service. In the early part of the twentieth century it was common practice for officers to be promoted after retirement.

Where a list of officers is given in response to a 'Search' query, it will be in alphabetical order of surname and forenames. As some officers are listed only with initials, it follows that two officers with the same surname and forename may not be listed together. RNR and RNVR officers who have previously served in the RN are listed separately for the two forms of service, often with full forenames for RN and only initials for RNR service.

An officer’s seniority is not the actual date he or she was promoted, and may be adjusted for many reasons such as merit, penalty, or a break in Service. It is even possible for an officer to have seniority in a higher rank antedated to the date before his/her previous lower rank. When there has been a change, the last seniority date awarded is used in Navy List Research and is shown immediately after the rank, any earlier seniority date being shown afterwards.

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