I've been researching my family tree recently, and my grandfather has been a tricky man to trace. He was supposedly born in Scotland and died in 1975 at 72, having served in the Royal Navy during the 2nd World War. I haven't been able to find any birth record or service record, so we think he may have changed his name, but that's a different story.
My mother and aunt say he used to claim he was at Pearl Harbour during the attack and spent hours in the water waiting to be rescued. I'm not sure how true this might be, and I'm struggling to find confirmation or the names of any british ships that were present during the attack. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
EDIT: Apparently he was a chef on carrier ships throughout both wars.
There were no Royal Navy vessels of any sort at Pearl Harbor (note correct spelling) on December 7th, 1941. The only thing that could have been remotely considered "English" in origin would have been Cheng Ho. The Cheng Ho was built in Hong Kong, which was a British Crown Colony at the time. However, at the time of the Pearl Harbor attack, she was considered part of the US Navy, as an "unclassified miscellaneous vessel" with the hull number of IX-52. She had officially joined the US Navy in July of 1941 from private service beforehand.
Other than IX-52, though, there were no other ships that could even remotely be considered Royal Navy. It seems very, very unlikely that your grandfather was at Pearl Harbor.
Hello there! As your question is related to looking for identification/information regarding military personnel, our Guide on Military Identification may be of use to you. It provides a number of different resources, including how to request service records from a number of national agencies around the world, as well as graphical aids to assist in deciphering rank, unit, and other forms of badges or insignia. While the users here may still be able to lend you more assistance, hopefully this will provide a good place to start!