I collect the postal history of Canada during WW2 and am new to this forum. I am familiar with the Canadian tunnelers who went to help on Gibraltar during WW2. However I have just found a cover with the return address "Owens R 880633, 26th Coast Bty RA, 3rd Coast Reg RA, Gibraltar". The letter is to Canada with a FPO 475 cancellation and a triangular;ar censor cachet. I am puzzled by this as the service numbers with the format R 880663 were used for Canadian other ranks serving in the R.C.A.F. So far I have not found this service number format used with any other forces but I know next to nothing about the UK army or the Royal Artillery. Can anyone tell me if this service number would have been used by someone in the R.A. or if not perhaps suggest what a Canadian Airman was doing with the above unit. I will post a scan of the cover if it will help John
In addition to 8,499 RCAF personnel the CWGC database reveals the following three Canadian army personnel with an ‘R’ prefix: R/547647 L/Cpl A J Smith, Canadian Scottish Regiment, R.C.I.C. R/50728 Tpr R F McLenahan, 1st Hussars, R.C.A.C. R/76233 Pte F C Griffin, 12 Light Field Ambulance, R.C.A.M.C. Too few to suggest a pattern I’m afraid - your theory of a RCAF transferee/secondment may be the answer - perhaps working with radar.
Just a suggestion as I have no view of the envelope, but could the soldier be: R. Owens service no 880663 Royal Artillery Attestations are on the findmypast website, but other helpful forum members with access usually arrives quite soon for this.
Just double checked and the number should be 880633 as per the original post (I should have used that) and it is a Robert James Owens, so he was a British gunner
Thank you for all the replies. AB64 - I think your explanation is the correct one and he was a British man writing to Canada. Perhaps I need to join one of these subscription web sites but my main interest is Canadians. If I may I do have a couple of questions about sources for this info. With my interest in Canada over the UK is there any particular site you recommend- Perhaps that is a question that should go into the general forum. Richlieu How did you find that there are "8,499 RCAF personnel the CWGC database " I have looked at that web page and not been able to find anything like that. Do you have to be a member ? john
For my research I use Ancestry and findmypast, they are pretty even in terms of whats available but I'd say I prefer findmypast in general for searches (ancestry has a habit of not finding things even if you put in the exact info they show which is annoying). As a general thing on the numbers RCAF other ranks seem to be R's and with promotions go to J's as officers - although I have seen some S's and C's for RCAF lads - checking "Regimental Numbers of the Canadian Army" by Clive Law it shows the blocks of numbers used by the Army which tended to be split by region, there are no groups starting with R (or J), so it seems they were reserved for the RCAF - the fact Richelieu only found 3 Army men with R numbers makes me wonder if those individuals have been wrongly recorded on CWGC
My approach was to select ‘Second World War’ casualties with just the R in ‘Service number’, and then filter by selecting ‘Canadian’ under ‘Served with’. I tend to download the results to Excel at this stage as it is easier to sort and search the data but note that the ‘Served in’ filter provides a breakdown. No membership required. Results Good spot - the attached ‘Grave Registration’ documents indicate a prefix of K in at least the cases of Smith and McLenahan.
In case it is on interest I have put together, from a few sources, this list of the prefix letters and their significance as used by Canadian service men during the WW2. The first letters up to N excluding I and J are the Military District (MD) where they enlisted. A MD 1 – London, Ontario B MD 2 – Toronto, Ontario C MD 3 – Kingston, Ontario D MD 4 – Montreal, Quebec E MD 5 – Quebec, Quebec F MD 6 – Halifax, Nova Scotia G MD 7 - St. John, New Brunswick H MD 10 – Winnipeg, Manitoba I ---------- J R.C.A.F Officers K MD 11 – Vancouver, British Columbia L MD 12 – Regina, Saskatchewan M MD 13 – Calgary, Alberta N Enlisted in St. John’s, Newfoundland O ---------- P Enlisted before 10-09-1939 Q ---------- R R.C.A.F. other ranks S * ---------- T Militia Officer (I am not 100% sure about this - was it only Officers ?) U Enlisted in the U.K. V ---------- W Women X ---------- Y With 3 digits Enlisted in Far East Z * With 4 digits Enlisted in Europe * The Canadian Army Order number 6247 on the 5th December 1945 introduced the use of the letter S as an extra prefix for the other ranks and Z for Officers. These were used in conjunction with the other prefixes. - I do not have any examples of these 2 letter codes to check. If a Flight Sargent was promoted to flying officer did he keep the numerical part of his service number ?? John
If you can I'd get a copy of the book I mentioned, below you can see the cover (there may be another revision) as well as an example of some entries An RCAF lad on commission got a new number as well as changing letter
And, just to throw a spanner in the works, "K" and "U" were also RCAF prefixes. One of my subjects, a Polish Jew from Berlin, left Germany in the 30s and migrated to Canada. The first thing the lad did was sign up for the Air Cadets. With a "K" number. Most paperwork I have seen on him changes the "K" to an "R" during the war. This is the best explanation I've seen. RCAF Service Numbers Regards, Dave
