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IntroductionYou can search and download the service records of officers who served in the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the First World War. This collection comprises the records of over 99,000 individuals, which have been taken from the collection AIR 76. The RAF was the world's first independent military air arm and by the end of the First World War it had become the largest, with over 27,000 officers and 250,000 other ranks. By the end of 1919, 26,000 of the 27,000 officers had been discharged and it is largely their service details which are held in this series. The records were created from the inception of the RAF in April 1918, however they include retrospective details of earlier service in the Royal Flying Corps or Royal Naval Air Service, where appropriate. Searching the service recordsYou can search the records by:
Points to note when searching: Many of the records do not record the officer’s date of birth. If you get no results, try omitting the date of birth and searching again. Where there is no date of the birth, the record description will say '1918- 1919'. The way officers’ names were recorded varies; some records have only first initials, whereas others use the first name. We have transcribed the names onto our database exactly as they are shown on the records. It is best to bear this in mind when searching; for example, if no results are found for a ‘William Jacobs’, it may be necessary to search again for a ‘W Jacobs’. Your download might contain the records of several individuals with the same name. This is because the nature of these documents sometimes makes it hard to distinguish between the records of officers with the same name. The original records were kept in alphabetical order, therefore it is not uncommon to find several concurrent records bearing the same name. Additionally, some of these records do not contain much distinguishing personal data, such as a date of birth, service number or address. When there are concurrent records bearing the same name, we have sometimes made them all available to download for a single fee. For example, if you download a record belonging to a John Smith, you might find that your download contains the records of several individuals called John Smith. What do the records look like?The records, in the form of double-sided sheets, were originally arranged in alphabetical order. In many cases there is more than one sheet for an individual. The service records of officers James Francis Mason At the top of the record are the officer's forename(s) or initial(s), surname, date and place of birth and next of kin. Spread across the remaining side(s) of the record sheet are usually the date the officer was initially commissioned, any subsequent promotion(s), the unit(s) which the individual served in (including the date of arrival at the unit and the date they left), and details of specialist courses attended. In the case of aircrew, the record will note any Royal Aero Club certificate numbers and the dates they were granted. Usually found on the back of a record sheet is information about the type of aircraft flown, details of any honours and awards and the date they were announced in the London Gazette. Many of the sheets are pre-printed with the references MGPRI or AM60. MGPR probably refers to the Department of the Master-General of Personnel, which would have held the forms prior to it becoming the Directorate of Personnel within the Department of the Chief of Air Staff by June 1919. Finally the record will note the date when an individual relinquished their commission, the date of death or a date of retirement. Further researchThe records of officers commissioned into the British Army who served in the Royal Flying Corps before the creation of the RAF may be found in the series WO 339 or WO 374. A muster list of officers in the RAF on 1 April 1918 is held in AIR 10/232-237. Most of the service records of officers of the Royal Naval Air Service can be found within ADM 273. Although not digitised, the series ADM 273 has been indexed, which means it is possible to search for individuals by name using the Catalogue. Some of the records of officers from the Royal Naval Air Service may be found within Royal Naval Officers' Service Records, which can be searched for and downloaded on DocumentsOnline. Operational records of the Royal Flying Corps, Royal Naval Air Service and RAF in the First World War can mostly be found in the series AIR1. It is possible to find RAF personnel in the collection of First World War Medal Index Cards, especially if they qualified for their campaign medals prior to the end of 1915. These too can be searched for and downloaded on DocumentsOnline. Research GuidesRoyal Air Force (RAF), RFC and RNAS: First World War, 1914-1918: Service Records Royal Air Force: Operational Records Air records as sources for biography and family history (PRO Readers' Information Leaflet, 13, 1994). S Fowler, P Elliot, R C Nesbit and C Goulter: RAF records in the PRO (PRO Readers' Guide No. 8, 1994). BooksAir Force Records, William Spencer, The National Archives, 2008. First World War Army Service Records, William Spencer, The National Archives, 2003. Tracing Your Air Force Ancestors, Phil Tomaselli, Pen and Sword Books Limited, 2007. | |||||||||
