Discovered some interesting WW2 photos at a relatives house – standard issues?

Other halfs gran passed away last week, we’ve discovered some interesting photos in an album nobody has ever seen before. Both gran and grandad are both dead now so can’t ask them, nobody else in family has seen these pics before let alone had conversations.

Basically grandad was in WW2 on an aircraft carrier. Looks like it was in Hong Kong when the Japanese surrendered. Now grandad was certainly not high ranking but appears to have a number of photos of them actually signing the surrender, and various elements of the ceremony that he probably had no right to be a) at, and b) waving a camera around at, if he were say on guard.

But strangely the pics seem to be in a set with general ones of him on the ship, and by the looks of it a number of ones taken at Hiroshima after the bomb strike. Without destroying the photo album to confirm, they seem identical format, quality etc. as if they were all personal photos taken broadly with the same camera.

Either
a) grandpops was some high raking general and never told us about it (or passed the money down the line…)
b) got someone to take a few snaps for him
c) got given them like everyone else on the ship

Don’t suppose any naval historians amongst us would know if they were the kind of thing people used to get given.

Haven’t delved too far into the big box of photos so there may some more nuggets that might reveal the truth.

You could try taking the album to one of the Imperial Warm Museums and seeing what they say or, if you know if he was in the forces and what unit, what his regimental association says about his history.

Imperial War Museum for stuff like that maybe worth a shout, or veterans associations?

If you have name, dob etc finding out his military career details should not be too hard. It sounds like he had an interesting time.

Is this your Grandpop at around 7:10 with the camera 😀

IIRC IWM website is quite searchable for photos – if the photos were generic/distributed to wider personnel then you might find scans of them online.

Alternatively, on active service, the outlets and opportunities to get photos processed and printed would probably be quite limited. The similarity of format between these and the other personal photos might simply mean they were processed and printed in the same shop / lab rather than taken by the same person with the same camera. He might not have been at these events in person but someone on his ship probably was, and being auspicious occasions that he and his crew mates were a part of, even if not present at, multiple prints might have been made and distributed.

Photos were often turned into post cards in the 40’s. I’ve got quite a few like that.

Alternatively, on active service, the outlets and opportunities to get photos processed and printed would probably be quite limited. The similarity of format between these and the other personal photos might simply mean they were processed and printed in the same shop / lab rather than taken by the same person with the same camera.

Yeah, I suspect thats probably closest to the truth

The victorians swapped and shared postcard photos, and my mum had a scrapbook in the 50’s and 60’s. This facebook malarky is older than we think.

My dad was on aircraft carriers and cruisers in the 1950s, on the boilers and engine room stuff. He has photos in his album of flight deck stuff he likely didn’t take himself, together with aerial shots of his ship and the fleet he definitely can’t have. They’re all mixed in with snaps of him and his mates with girls in the bars, similar size and type of print. I reckon he got his prints done at the NAAFI and they were offered souvenir shots as well at the same time. I’ll ask him though, see if he remembers.

My ex father in law (a marine) was aboard for the surrender, he took photos throughout the war and of the surrender. As As above I’d take photos of the pictures and send to imperial war museum or to one of the navy historical charities. There are lots of photos online so search for name of boat or grandfathers unit

My grandfather was a Royal Navy officer; we obtained a copy of his service record (which ships, when promoted, etc) from the National Archive. You may find something similar. It would shorten the search to find out if he was a commissioned officer or rating. If a petty officer (naval term for NCO) he would have started as a rating.

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/royal-navy-officers-service-record-cards-files-c1840-c1920/

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/royal-navy-ratings-after-1923/

If your Grandfather was involved in an event that was considered notable during the war and official photos were taken its highly possible prints were made of the photos and these were made available to the ships company, most ships especially aircraft carriers would have had facility for developing and copying photos.

Scan and then image search on Google