How do I trace a servicemans history from his service number of JX131312?

Question

His name was Sidney Spencer and he served on the HMS Dunedin WW2 on which his was listed as MIA when she went down.
His parental family are all from Yorkshire but his wife and daughter lived (daughter still does) in Portsmouth. There are no documents relating to Sidney or photographs as everything was destroyed in the bombings.
Any information on him or his parental family is eagerly desired.

Answer 1

The service number is a start - but you will need to show it to government / naval officials - people with access to the information.

You will need to consult navy / government records first - the navy official records should have what had happened to him.

Maybe also check enlistment records - see when and where enlisted, what happened after they enlisted - where they trained, and any information where they were transferred to duty.

Next you could look on the internet for any websites where ex-naval sailors / staff discuss or organise meetings - and if the HMS Dunedin had any survivors - and if they still meet regularly somewhere.

Look for Returned Services meetings of naval staff - make inquiries about who can help you to look into it.

If you do find someone that might know someone, ask permission to speak to them - privately. Provide your credentials of who u are and your concerns what your looking for and see if survivors know of him - or remember him.

Good luck in your quest.

Answer 2

The best avaiable service is surely Reverse Phone Lookup.

You can check the website here: http://www.goobypls.com/r/rd.asp?gid=538

The free reverse phone lookup sites generally doesn't provide anything interesting. To get interesting information, you should spend a bit of money. The free searches do not provide much more than what can be found through the phone book or personal knowledge and they only want your email to send spam. You should stay away from shady reverse phone lookup sites, most likely you won't get any information after you make the payment. Stick with a reputable reverse phone lookup site like http://www.goobypls.com/r/rd.asp?gid=538 that has been on the market for a lot of years.

With their reverse cell phone lookup tool you can find out information behind any cell or land line number. Type in the persons cell phone number and you will be given access to their report, including name cell and land line numbers, and address.

It can be used also for a much deeper search. People wanting to get hold of all kinds of background reports, as well as cell phone numbers, addresses and names..

If I remember well there are 2 options:

Basic:
You get only one report.
[acabo]Advanced:

You get unlimited reports... I went with this option because I wanted to verify more numbers. You can get the name, other phone number, address history, relatives, and much more about anyone!

Anyway you can check on the website for further informations. Hope it helps! :)

Answer 3

About.com provides a link to a searchable index of medal rolls for the British army and navy servicemen from World War II. It also mentions that data is incomplete, because 60% of service records were destroyed in the bombing of Britain during the war. See what you can find here: http://history1900s.about.com/b/a/124469.htm

Best of luck!

Answer 4

Try the National Archives website at:

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/

They have service records - you will only get so far, because you have to send off for copies of the documents, if they have them.

Good luck!

Answer 5

I think what you have there is not the correct service number.All forces just have a number with no letters in front of it.