WELCOME TO THIS PAGE ALL ABOUT A

HUMBLE MENU CARD .........

Seen below is what most people would think of as an insignificant menu card from an old Cunard passenger liner named the R.MS. FRANCONIA 

but how wrong they would be !,

the month  and year feb 1915 set it apart from most liners, as at the time the Franconia had been requisitioned by the military as a troop ship,

the next thing is the ink signature  across the ,

right hand diagonal section,

and the wording Hood Battalion 2nd RN Brigade

Royal Naval Division, the name was very difficult to decypher ,and it took the combined talents of my wife sharon my cousin Stephen R Norris,

 and my self to crack the writings meaning ,

we tried word association  various combinations,

and extensive research on the interweb ??,

and sharon had a "eurika" moment " and said try 

say charles  or charles james martin ?, which after a few trial and tribulations i did , and found 1 and ,

only 1 person with that name in the RND ,

And he was Sub LT Charles James Martin his 

battalion is listed as "HOOD"BATTALION"

now it is known that the Franconia was on the run

from the uk to egypt as a troopship the troops then would have gone to Gallipoli as part of that campaign,

He had a relatively short commission as a sub leutenant, 

as he was killed in action in the 3rd battle of Krithia,

on the 4th of june 1915,,

as seen by the short entrys on his service card,

also seen below,  the Menu gives a facinating insight,

into how the higher class of passengers would have,

enjoyed the finer things in life, and officers were no,

different, as i doubt that most average junior ratings ,

would have had a clue what most if any of the fancy names,

meant , its not very often you can glean so much information from such a humble artifact,but its been a labour of love,

to have found out what we did, for this menu card,

this card ties in really well with the page i did on a,

hand engraved horn beaker that has "remember gallipoli"

on it along with other notable information on that,

campaign,

seen below are  sub lt martins service record card ,

and a period rppc of the Franconia

in the Royal  navy  although the rank is written down

as leutenant , it is pronounced or uttered as Leftenant

i.e sub leutenant/ leutenant /leutenant commander.

THE. NEXT TO JOIN & BE REMEMBERED IS FREDERICK ALDERMAN WHO SEEMS TO HAVE HAD SEVERAL CHANGES IN HIS CAREER,

HE HAD PREVIOUSLY SERVED AS A PRIVATE IN C COMPANY 3RD BATTALION HAMPSHIRE  REGIMENT,SPECIAL RESERVE, 

HE THEN  JOINED THE RN AS A STOKER ? IN 1909 OR THERE ABOUTS 

AND AS WAR BROKE OUT HE JOINED THE RANKS OF SURPLUS TO REQUIREMENTS  AS A LOT DID,

IN SEPTEMBER 1914 HE WAS DRAFTED TO DRAKE BATTALION ,

AND TOOK PART IN THE DEFENCE OF ANTWERP , HENCE THE MONS STAR EVENTUALY HE WENT BACK TO THE RN AND WITH HIS TIME IN THE ROYAL FLEET RESERVES HE GOT THE LONG SERVICE AND GOOD CONDUCT MEDAL.

BELOW ARE HIS MEDALS