Subsequent series unregistered

1970: Naval personnel electronic data processing records (NMAN EDP
      System), 1970-

Function and purpose

This series comprises cards on which a Naval Officer’s personal particulars and service history from enlistment/graduation to discharge are recorded.  Cards were maintained for all regular officers, male and female, including Dockyard police, officers on loan or exchange from the Royal Navy, and officers of the Naval Reserve, the Naval Volunteer Reserve and the Naval Nursing Service who were either mobilised or served for a continuous period in excess of 28 days.  Maintenance of the cards ceased on 1 February 1970 following computerisation of the records. 

There are three basic types of cards forming the series:  the officer’s record of service card, a record of mobilized service card and a sailor's, etc record of service card for officers promoted from the ranks. 

The officers’ "Record of Service" cards were printed over a period of some 50 years from the 1910s to the 1960s and, consequently, vary in size, colour and in some minor detail. The smaller (18.5x24.5cm) cards appear to have been printed pre 1945 and range in colour from grey-blue through grey and blue to grey-green; whilst the larger (21x28cm) cards came in either blue or green-blue colours.

The spaces provided and the detail recorded on these cards fall into four board categories:

·       Personal particulars: including surname and given names, decorations and degrees, home port, pay number, details of next of kin, date of birth, place of birth, religion, specialist qualifications, previous service in the armed forces, address on entry and address on discharge.

·       Status: including date commissioned, record of promotions and reversions to substantive, acting and/or honorary ranks, dates of seniority, higher duties pay whilst acting in a higher appointment for larger periods and transfers to the Emergency and the Reserve Lists. Most with details of appropriate dates, authorities, file references, etc.

·       Examinations and Miscellaneous record; including date and file references and, foequently, details of special financial/payment approvals, especially on the earlier cards.

·       Appointments and Movements record; including the authority, terms of appointment, the ship, and dates to and from for each posting. At times other types of data such as the date classified medically unfit, the date and circumstances of death, pensions granted to wife and children, details of Repatriation Statements, date resignation was accepted, etc are also recorded in these columns.

Some earlier forms also provide columns and record details appropriate to officers on loan or on exchange from the Royal Navy. On later forms such data is recorded in either the "Status" or the "Appointments and Movements" columns. 

The "Royal Australian Naval Reserve-Record of Mobilized Service" card is a large (21x28cm) buff coloured card which was also used for Naval Volunteer Reserve and Naval Nursing Service personnel, and is common to both officers and sailors. The spaces provided and the detail recorded on these cards is similar to those described for the officers record of service card, as well as: 

• Date member reported per duty, his rank or rating and seniority, and the service usually a Ship to which he or she was allocated on Mobilization
• A physical description of the member
• Various conduct summaries for sailors.
• Record of wounds received in action.  

The cards also contain entries on such matters as pay in lieu of leave or re-establishment leave, the war gratuity claim member and amount, date demobilized, Repatriation Statement number and date, etc. The "Sailor's Record of Service Card" and/or a similar but differently titled card, records the types of information already described above, but covers only the non-commissioned part of service of officers promoted from the lower ranks.

At least in principle, the information contained on any or all of these cards is a summary of the records kept in the personal files of an officer. A few errors and omissions have been however discovered. The summary of service of an officer may be recorded on one or more cards. Pre-1911 details concern officers transferred from the Victorian Naval Forces and presumably the Naval Forces of other States. Entries may be in pencil, ink or by rubber stamp. There is evidence of erasures, overwriting or of transcription on a few cards.

Multiple cards may be all of the same type and colour, or could be any combination of the various types, sizes or colours. All cards kept on an officer are located in a polythene sleeve and are filed in lexicographical order in lever-arch files. A contents list is located in the front of each folder. 

Related legislation

Using the series

Maintenance of the cards ceased on 1st February 1970 when the manual personnel record keeping functions were transferred to the "NMAN EDP System". Post service details of officers still serving on that date were transcribed to this system, however; the EDP records are not an exact duplicate of the manual records.

It should be noted that Australian Naval Officers were not given a unique identification number, usually called a Serial, Personal or Official Number, until the start of the EDP system when all the then serving officers were allocated a number between 1 A' Church AV and 3045 Johnson 5. This allocation partially from 1001 onwards repeated the numbers previously allocated to both sailors during 1911-1913 and to National Servicemen during 1951-1957.

After 1 February 1970 numbers were allocated at enlistment/induction points from a block of numbers controlled by Navy EDP.

Language of material

Physical characteristics

System of arrangement and control

Relationships with other records

Finding aids

All 14,167 items comprising this series have been entered onto RecordSearch.

Access conditions

Series history

Provenance

Immediate source of acquisition

Custodial history

Quantity in agency custody

Disposal history

Publication note

Additional information

End notes

Sources