Papers relating to Commander Thomas Arthur Bassett, a transport officer in the Royal Naval Reserve, see item level records.

Administrative / biographical background
Bassett was born at Southampton in 1875 and first went to sea as an apprentice on the schooner FONTHILL (1878), owned by James Dible & Sons. He became a junior officer with the British India Steam Navigation Co Ltd in 1896, employed as fourth mate on the VIRAWA (1890). He gained his certificate of competency as master in 1901 (certificate number 030070). As a Royal Naval Reserve officer he was involved in transport operations in the Boer War, Boxer Rebellion, Ogadeyn Punitive Force and Somaliland; and in the suppression of arms traffic in the Persian Gulf. Bassett continued to be employed by the British India company until 1906, when he took up appointment as a port officer at Tuticorin in the Presidency of Madras. From 1910 to 1914 he was Port Officer of Cochin and Negapatan. He was on continuous active service in the Transport Service of the Admiralty from August 1914, initially in India, then later at Liverpool, Newhaven and Portsmouth. He was promoted to the rank of acting commander (retired) in 1917. He died as a result of an accident at Portsmouth Dockyard on 29 September 1918. Bassett’s medals are in the National Maritime Museum collection, see MED1031 to MED1034. His record of service in the Royal Naval Reserve can be found in the ADM 240 series at The National Archives.