pre-World War 1 to present - Casualty Lists of the Royal Navy and Dominion Navies
Researched & compiled by Don Kindell

 

THE CHALLENGE OF CASUALTY LISTS

 

Edited by Gordon Smith, Naval-History.Net

Corporal Alan Hedges, Royal Marines, serving on frigate Loch Ruthven, died 16 April 1958 (Sally Jacobs, click to enlarge)

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The number of casualties (killed, died or missing) when a ship is lost or damaged often vary from source to source. There are a number of reasons, which are sometimes a matter of definition, but often difficult to pin down.

It is not yet possible for the many different casualty figures in Naval-History.Net to be reconciled, but the following notes should help clarify matters:

1. All the casualty numbers used by Gordon Smith were supplied by Don Kindell (below), which "should include all later died of wounds.  I would pull up the vessel by name, delete prior non-related casualties and count the numbers from there including the later deaths.  One discrepancy I encountered in compilation was aliases where I would find the alias and the real name both listed."

2. Don Kindell, who has worked closely with the Naval Historical Branch (MOD (Navy)), the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, David Brown of the NHB and other naval historians and authors over the last 30 years or so - "The casualty lists are a collation of Admiralty Officer and Rating Death Ledgers, Fleet Air Arm crew Death Ledgers, the Admiralty releases of casualties in loss of ships, the Admiralty Miscellaneous Lists which covered the non sinking and smaller ship casualties, and other lists taken from Reports of Proceedings and other official sources.  My original interest was to find the casualties in the Norwegian campaign in damaged ships and Fleet Air Arm operations.  This branched out over a period of almost ten years to include casualties from World War I to the present."

3. Lt Cdr Geoff Mason RN (Rtd), whose researches over the last few decades include over 1,000 detailed ship histories, quotes total casualties i.e. men killed, lost or missing presumed killed, from two sources. In most cases they were taken from "Warship Losses in World War 2" by David Brown, late of the Naval Historical Branch, published by Arms and Armour Press in 1990. Alternatively from the casualty lists published by the "Times" newspaper in the period when the ship was lost.

Where there are differences, hopefully the above notes will help to guide researchers.

 
 

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revised 28/8/11