‘My own boy… in the Naval Division in the Dardanelles, is daily in the firing line‘ Letter of William Cole, the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve Bristol Division, 1 January 1916 Men from Bristol served in the Royal Navy and the Merchant Navy during the First World War. They served on troop ships, merchant ships, hospital ships and submarines. Percy Hussey was a 16 year old postman from Bedminster when he joined the Royal Navy in 1898 for 12 years. Then he joined the Royal Fleet Reserve and continued at sea. He saw war service on HMS Victory, Vernon, Halycon and Osiris, and was demobilised after the war at the age of 39. He went back to being a postman, and died at the age of 82. Thomas Barnett joined at 18 years old. He became a submariner. He served on E8, a submarine patrolling the Baltic Sea, until in 1918 the Royal Navy sank its Baltic flotilla to prevent the Germans taking it. Barnett ended his naval career on the submarine L71, when he was invalided out in 1921.