Arthur James Wilkinson

From The Dreadnought Project
Jump to: navigation, search

Ordnance Artificer Arthur James Wilkinson, R.N., Retired (16 June, 1897 – ) served in the Royal Navy during the First World War.

Life & Career

Appointed as a Boy, Second class to the battlecruiser Invincible on 3 August, 1914, Wilkinson served in her at the Battle of the Falkland Islands. He wrote his parents after the battle, "I seem to have got a lucky ship, don't I?"[1] He would be fortunate to choose to "run" from the ship on 11 January, 1916, apparently to "fraudulently [enlist] in the Army while in a state of desertion from the Navy."[2]

He was recovered on 18 April, 1917 and sentenced to Portsmouth Detention for 60 days. On 11 July, he was released into unspecified service at Portsmouth, from which he was invalided for an old wound to his left hand. It is not clear what became of him from there.[3]

Service Records

 

Footnotes

  1. Photocopy of letter provided by Dave Moodie to Tone, 20191018.
  2. Wilkinson Service Record. The National Archives. ADM 188/686/19902. f. ?.
  3. Wilkinson Service Record. The National Archives. ADM 188/686/19902. f. ?.