Friends Father

A friend has asked me to try and find out about her Dad during the war. I only have his name seved 39 to 45 and came from the Birmingham area where should i start ?

 

Start with his name, what was it?

 

Thomas William Hopkins from the Sparkhill area of Birmingham

 

Was he aircrew or ground crew or maybe they don't know?

Any wartime photos? If so does the background look like England or Egypt or Burma etc.

Ought to be able to get a serial number or some options from AIR78 at least. Someone here might have more free time but I can try later. Common enough name though.

Any possible medals or any sort of document they have overlooked?

 

They really just need to start by applying for his service file from the RAF with his date of birth and date of death.

Requests for personal data and service records: a detailed guide - GOV.UK

 

Thanks i will try to get more info

 

As I thought, there were more than one Thomas William Hopkins, but, only three of them.
That doesn't include T W Hopkins, where only initials are recorded:

So those three serial numbers are:

1087347 Militia PC
1531263 JB
1866369

So, is there any document or other that might include one of those numbers within that family?

An explanation of the word militia there and the letters PC and JB can be found here:
RAF - Militia (World War Two) - RootsChat.Com
and
AIR 78 and finding RAF Other Ranks Service Number

The serial number batches can be interpreted here
RAF/RAF OR Service Numbers

So they are from the top
1087347 - enlisted at Padgate sometime after Sep 1939
1531263 enlisted at Padgate sometime after Apr 1941
1866369 enlisted at Cardington sometime after oct 1942

 

Lovely thanks for all your help i will look into this later

 

Not sure if I've missed something, but where did the assumption that he was RAF come from?

 

His daughter told me thats about all she knows unfortunately

 

Hi Blutto,
Very nearly posted the same question until I noticed that the post is to the Forum 'The War in the Air'.
Tim