Military Chat

Record Transcription:
Britain, Merchant Seamen, 1918-1941

First name(s) Wm
Last name Mitchell
Event year 1918
Birth year 1897
Birth place Whitby
Birth county/country Yorkshire
Birth date 21 Aug 1897
Discharge number 917161
Identity certificate number 312760
Card type CR10
Archive The National Archives
Series BT350
Date range 1918-1921
Record set Britain, Merchant Seamen, 1918-1941
Category Education & work
Subcategory Merchant Navy & Maritime
Collections from Great Britain, UK None

image on fmp with a photograph

???

William Mitchell
in the Web: UK, Campaign Medals Awarded to WWI Merchant Seamen, 1914-1925
Name: William Mitchell
Birth Date: 1897
Birth Place: Whitby
Year Issued: 1914-1925


Record viewable at National Archives website:
http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D8070008

Full details viewable on payment of £3.50.
The non-paid partially obscured image seems to show he was awarded the Mercantile Marine Ribbon and British Medal Ribbon on 21/09/1918, and then the Mercantile Marine Medal on some date in 1921.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercantile_Marine_War_Medal

This looks like William in the 1911 census:-

1911 Census For England & Wales
6 Raglan Terrace Whitby, Ruswarp, Yorkshire & Yorkshire (North Riding), England

First name(s) Last name Relationship Marital status Sex Age Birth year Occupation Birth place

Esther Mitchell Head Widow Female 46 1865 - Whitby Yorks
Esther Agnes Mitchell Daughter Single Female 17 1894 Apprentice Dressmaker Yorks Whitby
Stanley Mitchell Son Single Male 14 1897 Civil Service Litograph Messenger Yorks Whitby
William Mitchell Son Single Male 13 1898 School Yorks Whitby
Martha Hovington Mitchell Daughter Single Female 11 1900 School Yorks Whitby
Eleanor Minns Boarder Widow Female 84 1827 - Yorks Whitby

Kath. x

If you buy his death certificate it may give some clues:-

First name(s) WILLIAM
Last name MITCHELL
Gender Male
Birth day -
Birth month -
Birth year 1898
Age 24
Death quarter 1
Death year 1922
District Whitby
County Yorkshire
Volume 9D
Page 723
Country England
Record set England & Wales Deaths 1837-2007

Kath. x

I am trying to find details of what happened to William during the First World War. I have a family letter from the 1950s talking about him and saying that he died in 1922 as a result of illness caused by exposure when he spent several days on a raft during the First World War. He was born and died in Whitby and came from a seafaring family. I think they he may have been in the Merchant Navy but cannot be sure about that. He was the son of John and Esther Mitchell. I would be grateful for any information concerning his life which was sadly a short one.