Beach Commando & COPPs

I?m currently researching a Hostilities Only AB who was part of COPP 8 in 1945. His service record only shows him HMS Dinosaur in ?42. COPRA from ?43-?45. I?m trying to work back, via the Navy List, from officers who signed his character/performance sheet but one of them, IB Chapman is also shown COPRA. One other is possibly (handwriting is near illegible) EA Davies, who was a Cmdr at HMS Armadillo.

I?m planning on heading up to Kew and IWM, once they?re open, to trawl COPP records & memoirs to see if he pops up. I?m trying to tie down where else he was in Combined Ops.

Is anyone aware of any lists of RN personnel who trained at Armadillo or were posted to individual Beach Commandos? Or HMS Dinosaur courses? I?m guessing, as is usually the case, OR?s will not be recorded individually.

Thanks in advance for any help

Hi Al,
What was the individual's name?

Nick

Hi,
It was Daniel George Riches JX377244. He is shown at HMS Dinosaur 24th Jan - 31 August 43. From that point onwards HMS COPRA until 20th Nov 1945.

Regards
Al

Our RN Commando Lists are here: http://www.commandoveterans.org/RNBC

There is also a very good website here with a lot of information on the RN Beach Commandos: http://www.relaysystem.co.uk/id3.html

I'd be really interested to hear what you find out!

I'm just pulling together a list of COPP personnel from the various different public sources before myself delving into official records as much as possible. Very much a work in progress at the moment, especially as different secondary sources tend to diverge from one another -- I've only completed the letter 'A' so far! https://www.coppsurvey.uk/a-to-z-list/ (Whole website is currently hidden behind a 'Coming soon' landing page as it's all still being thrown together.)

I've not come across the surname Riches yet. Closest I've seen so far is an SBS member, Richey, but he was a Corporal. Stealthily by Starlight lists him as being part of COPP 1 which was in the Far East at the same time as the first iteration of COPP 8 was out there, but I've not yet seen even Richey mentioned anywhere else.

There does seem to have been a second iteration of COPP 8 "about to be formed" by mid-April 1945. My grandfather's diary mentions this, but my grandfather was a Royal Engineer and he only lists one name, that of the Royal Engineer officer who would have been attached to that unit. https://www.coppsurvey.uk/the-copp-teams/#copp8

Good luck with finding out more! Was he a relative? What suggests he was in COPP 8?