Francis Perret - Merchant Navy

I have about five medals awarded to Merchant Navy men which are proving difficult to research. There are some Merchant Navy details on the WWII nominal roll but this is a bit hit and miss. So researching medals awarded to men who served in the Merchant Navy is not the easiest.
I recently received a War Medal awarded to F Perret from Andrew G a fellow Army officer who I've know for many years. Even with such an unusual surname Perret proved hard to pin down. The only reference to him in the National Archives was an application for war medals made in 1947. Although the initial was the same the application didn't provide the complete name. Digging in to Ancestry proved to pull all the threads together and I've recently been in contact with Perret's family.
I now know that his name was Francis and he worked as a cook on merchant vessels prior to the war. He continued to serve in the same capacity during WWII which earned him this medal.
The returned medal tally is now 1175.

This example show that RAN naming is more pronounced that medals awarded to the Army.