Hector Merchant - 176008 Royal airforce - though perhaps someone could help narrow down a window of when etc. ? All the best, Rm. Edit - from fb... The RAF was formed in April 1918 from an amalgamation of the RNAS and the RFC during the last year of WW1...... Although new uniforms were introduced, these were still very much khaki-based and were very sporadically obtained or issued. Many personnel of the new formation continued to wear their previous existing uniforms with and without a change to the insignia for the duration of the war and into the post-war period...... Below - the "new" style headdress introduced for the RAF in 1918...........image shows a RAF Officers cap with the additional bars to indicate rank (soon discontinued).... "Restored by Francisco Moll"
Commissioned, kings crown. Gloss black visor different to normal peaked caps, may be studio photo clothing rather than own purchase. Smacks of Cranwell Cadet. Full name or initials and surname (depending on era) should show in Air Force List or London Gazette (beware the OCR used does not completely correspond to the typed data in original image). Ross
His son... JOHN MERCHANT Obituary (1929 - 2018) Boston Globe Born on July 21, 1929, in Cardiff, Wales - Died 18th March 2018. Remote Measurement of Eye Direction Allowing Subject Motion Over One Cubic Foot of Space
The photo has slightly obscured writing and it is: Metropole Studio Cardiff. There are a few other photos online, none on a quick scan have the same imprint. Most items are for WW1.
Cardiff makes sense as the family came from and lived in Caerphilly and later Cardiff. Searching for information on a surname like "Merchant" , with a first name like Hector now....
Ok airman 176008 17/5/18 just after formation of RAF April 1918 Name: Hector Merchant. | The National Archives Then commissioned cadet armament but fit as pilot May 1918 Name Merchant, Hector Date of Birth: 23 January 1900 | The National Archives To reserve 26 March 1919 Ross
Thanks. I had a few relatives in the RAF but have never really had any information or leads to further pursue some lines of research about them. It is fascinating what there is once one or two of the log jams aren't there. He (Hectar Merchant) would have been about 39 then, at the start of ww2 and the photo at the top of the page presumably fits into quite a narrow window of time around 1918-1919. All the best, Rm.
Easier than Army - Month and Year of Birth, proof of death and £30 gives all within 4 to 6 weeks with the new online system. If you want to do it the much harder way and spend more than £30 of your time on each then First step is to assume they were airmen/airwomen and look up index cards in AIR78 at TNA on free download. Browse records of other archives | The National Archives Covers 1918 to 1975 Will at least give you confirmation they served. For OR that's about as far as you can go unless they got gong or oak leaf. If wartime RAFVR then commissioned usually entered as Other Rank (listed in AIR78) before commission and new officer personal number. Use the OR service number and surname in Online London Gazette to find their officer personal number. After that you can use the Gazette/Air Force List to trace promotions and then transfer to reserve. In Hector's case he was not in long enough to leave many traces and the admin machine was still being set up to capture his career. Ross
Iris Marjorie According to AIR78 Waaf Inspector of Enrollments service number block covering 79,999 Waaf entries from Aug 1942. Guess at 1000 per month into the system so 21 months - say entry around May/Aug 1944 (what does it say for entry in her 2520B). Ross
7d12m1942 - I think, I shall scan what I think is the relevant page momentarily... ;-) Here... I am quite surprised by the prevalence of squiggle signatures in documents I have come across... At some point someone must have started to see sense and to get people to print their name as well as attaching their indecipherable signature... ;-)
Magic, Helps me with the guesses - always difficult to estimate the entry numbers as the training depots got up to speed. So 20 thousand WAAF in 4 months - eg 5000 a month - they were going full steam at embodiment and release of men from the trade. Classed as Superior at trade and Satisfactory at supervision of juniors. Ross
RAFCommands thanks for your wonderful help. This is Iris - aged 17... Her wedding... her husband Roy Midgley was also in the RAF (ground crew, I think, fixing engines). Re. Roy Midgley - Roy Midgley | WW2Talk
Turn to the page in front of Service Particulars - should be Clearance Certificate. The stamp will give the last unit she was at. Admin manual AP837 stated all signature to be in manuscript and legibly written!!! So squiggle is the OC of the stamp in the Clearance Certificate and held the rank of Group Captain. Used this method to debunk some UFO shouters - who said no such person worked for MoD on the letters they got. Looked up AFL for unit and role and confirmed that the officer not only existed but was not some secret squirrel who was not listed anywhere. R
No.101 PDC 101 Personnel Despatch Centre, Kirkham (PDC UK) | The National Archives One of the last groups to go through Kirkham - by that time they were mostly doing Far East -who rightly thought that they had been hard done by - leading to the mutiny! RAF India - Wikipedia. Ross
