Royal Marines in WW1

John Rawlinson is a member of the Royal Marines Heritage and Ethos committee, a renowned expert on Royal Marine History and has recently published a major work ‘Royal Marine Commandos 1990-2025’.  

Self-declared amphibious warfare and uniform 'geek' he is also a Vice President of the Royal Marines Historical Society.  

This presentation examines the Royal Marines during the First World War, concentrating on how the Corps was organised, its key functions, how and why it expanded, and how individual histories can be researched.

In 1914, the Corps was not a single organisation, but was divided into the RMLI and the RMA, with grand divisions at Chatham, Portsmouth (Gosport) and Plymouth, while the RMA was headquartered in Eastney, all supported by the recruits' depot at Deal.

Wartime expansion produced battalions, brigades, artillery units, engineers, garrison detachments and training establishments, while thousands continued to man ships and coastal bases.

The talk will explain how these elements fitted together and will review the Corps' main deployments and battles during the war.

Finally, the presentation offers a practical guide to researching Royal Marines. It will demonstrate how records at the National Archives, officer records, medal rolls, casualty lists, war diaries, Navy Lists, divisional records, newspapers and other archives can be combined to reconstruct individual careers, while avoiding familiar pitfalls of apparently incomplete records. Case studies will show how records connect institutions, units and men and it will be illustrated with medals and research from the speakers own collection.