Colson, Bernard Francis, Paymaster Commander, 1884-1951.

A series of personal diaries kept by Colson during the period 21 May 1904 to 31 December 1918, while serving on the battleship HMS JUPITER at Gibraltar, HMS KING GEORGE V during a royal visit and HMS HANNIBAL which serve as a troopship in the Dardanelles campaign. Also included is pantomime programs from his time on board HMS MONMOUTH and HMS KING GEORGE V, a photograph album, a series of loose photographs and watercolours by Bernard Colson.

Administrative / biographical background
Colson was one of the sons of Surgeon-Major Edward Colson of St Helier, Jersey. He entered the Navy in 1902 and first served as an assistant clerk on HMS DUKE OF WELLINGTON. He passed examinations for paymaster in 1905 and reached the rank of staff paymaster during the First World War. He married Margaret Jex Robertson, a Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) nurse, at Kensington in 1917, following a period of recovery from illness in hospital at Alexandria in Egypt. He was placed on the retired list after becoming physically unfit in 1918. He was promoted to the rank of paymaster commander while on the retired list in 1925. Colson served at shore establishments in the Far East and United States during the Second World War. He retained his naval rank, but supervised RASC Expeditionary Force Institutes staff, responsible for NAAFI operations abroad. His service record can be found under the reference ADM 196/171/302 at The National Archives.