Midshipman's journal kept by Stuart Austen Buss on the battleship HMS ROYAL SOVEREIGN (1915), between 1 July 1919 and 9 January 1921. The events covered include salvage work on German warships at Scapa Flow, the Peace Pageant at Southend, a refit at Invergordon, then duties in the Mediterranean and Black Sea during the Greco-Turkish War and Russian Civil War. The jounal ends with the ROYAL SOVEREIGN being place in reserve at Portsmouth. A chart of the Galloper Shoal in the North Sea is loose inside the volume. Other charts and plans drawn by Buss are attached.

Administrative / biographical background
Buss was born near Canterbury in 1900. He attended Haileybury school in Hertfordshire and then gained a special entry cadetship to Keyham Naval College. He first went to sea as a midshipman on the battleship HMS ROYAL SOVEREIGN (1915) in 1918. After being promoted to sub-lieutenant he specialized in submarines and served on HMS H.52 (1919), tender to the depot ship HMS MAIDSTONE (1912) at Plymouth. As a lieutenant his appointments included the battleship HMS EMPEROR OF INDIA (1913) and the destroyer HMS VIMIERA (1917) in the Mediterranean. Later he was in command of destroyers including HMS SKATE (1917) attached to the torpedo school at Portsmouth, HMS VERITY (1919) and HMS DUCHESS (1932) on the China station and HMS FOXHOUND (1934) in home waters. He was in command of the destroyer HMS ELECTRA (1934) when she arrived at the scene of the sinking of the passenger liner ATHENIA (1923) at the start of the Second World War. Buss was killed in action while in command of the destroyer HMS DULVERTON (1941) in the Mediterranean in 1943. His award of the Distinguished Service Cross was among the New Year Honours in January 1944. He was made Member of the Royal Victorian Order (MVO) in 1935. His record of service in the period 1918-1929 can be found under the reference ADM 196/148/382 at The National Archives. See the photograph albums ALB1403 and ALB1404 also relating to this officer.