Certificates of Service of Petty Officer Ronald Arthur Cobb and accompanying photographs

Certificates of service covering Ronald Arthur Cobb's service in the Royal Navy as a Telegraphist and later Radio Mechanic between October 1940 and 23 March 1946 and the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve between June 1949 to June 1954. Also includes two photographs showing Cobb and class mates at the shore establishment HMS ROYAL ARTHUR. Cobb is standing third from the right in the second row from the back in the photograph of 'Class 29' and is seated in the centre of the group of five in the second photograph.

Administrative / biographical background
Born in Chorlton, Cheshire in 1922, Ronald Arthur Cobb entered Royal Naval service on 19 March 1941 at the age of 19. He started his training at the shore establishment HMS ROYAL ARTHUR which was mainly used to train ‘Hostilities Only’ communications branch ratings and officers (signalmen, telegraphist, coders and wireless operators). Wartime service offered Cobb not only the opportunity to learn a trade but also to travel. Six months after joining up, he joined HMS PHILOCTETES, a former merchant ship converted to a depot repair ship. PHILOCTETES operated out of Free Town, Sierra Leone. After nearly nine months in West Africa, Cobb returned to England. In September 1943 he was sent to the Royal Navy Air Station Bherunda, Columbo, Ceylon [Sri Lanka] and then to HMS GARUDA, a naval air station in Peelamedu, Tamil Nadu. This was a Royal Navy aircraft repair yard with the capacity for 180 aircraft. He was made Acting Petty Officer (Radio Mechanic). He returned to England, assigned the rank of Petty Officer and sent to HMS ARIEL, home of the Air Radio and Air Mechanics training establishment at Risley in Warrington, Lancashire. In September 1945 he moved to HMS COLLINGWOOD at Fareham in Hampshire, Second World War ‘Hostilities Only’ training establishment for Seaman and Communication Ratings which in 1947 became the Royal Navy’s Electrical Radio and Radar School. After leaving the service Cobb continued living in Hampshire and died in Basingstoke in 1994.