Bernard edward Binley

Name	Bernard Binley
Corps	Royal Navy
Rank	AC11
Service No.	F34514 HMS President II
Date/Place of entry	31 July 1917
Date of death	1954
Memorial/Grave

Bernard Edward Binley was born in Nottingham in 1880, a great nephew of Thomas Binley of Cottingham and a grandson of William Binley of Corby, Thomas’s younger brother. Bernard’s father and his older brother were plumbers and the family lived in the parish of St. John, one of the poorest areas of Nottingham. William and Esther Beadsworth, whose son Harry Beadsworth was killed in action in 1916, had moved to St. Johns from Cottingham in the 1880s. More information on the extended Binley family can be found on the page of Charles Stephen Binley.
Bernard took a different career path from his father and brother, becoming a clerk to a solicitor, then to an estate agent. On 31 July 1917 he joined the Royal Navy, taking on a clerical post within HMS President II. This was not a ship but the title given to the Admiralty accounting base for the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS). Bernard was initially based at Crystal Palace but was transferred to RNAS Calshot at Lee-On-Solent on 1st January 1918. The Royal Naval Air Station there (HMS Daedalus) dealt with seaplanes and flying boats, and provided anti-submarine and convoy protection patrols.

His distant cousin Charles Stephen Binley also served in the Royal Navy as a non-combatant.
Bernard left the RNAS on 31st March 1918. His rank was given as ACII which presumably means he was designated aircraftman. He died in 1954.

Other Binley servicemen to whom he was related are Percy, Sidney, Charles, George, and John Binley of Cottingham, John, George and Willis Panter of Cottingham, Albert Gear and Ernest Beeby descended from Cottingham; Wilfred, Percy Augustine and George Frederick Binley, and William and Herbert Roddis all descended from the Corby Binleys.