Royal Flying Corp

[bearkin]

I have come across an old photo graph of a relative who appears to be wearing the uniform which appears to have "Royal Flying Corp" on the right shoulder. Does anyone know where I might go to find out more about the RFC and if there are any service lists of the Corp.

thanks,

Peter

[Geoffers]

I have come across an old photo graph of a relative who appears to be wearing the uniform which appears to have "Royal Flying Corp" on the right shoulder. Does anyone know where I might go to find out more about the RFCThe Naval and Military Press publish many books and are likely to have on one the RFC

Have a browse through The National Archives (TNA) Research Guides; you'll find one on the RAF in WW1
http://www.catalogue.nationalarchives.gov.uk/researchguidesindex.asp
(click on 'R' and there is an obvious link)

The MoD web-site gives brief details on accessing records.
http://www.mod.uk/contacts/raf_records.htm

The only full muster of the RAF was on its creation in 1918. The records of this muster are at TNA in AIR1/819 and AIR10/232-237

Geoffers

[bearkin]

Dear Geoffers,

Thanks for the helpful information. It seems all roads point to a visit to the TNA.

Thanks again,

Pete

[clarefmshaw]

My great-uncle was in the Royal Flying Corps and I found out quite a bit more about him via the following routes:

I checked the NA website 'WW1 campaign medals' service and found his medals certificate: this gave me his service number, rank, etc (it cost £3.50).

I then emailed the RAF Museum, London, using their research enquiries service and, giving all the details I had found from the NA site, they subsequently sent me a copy of his pilot's certificate (they didn't charge for this).

If your relative was one of the first 1,000 recruits into the RFC (my great-uncle was, and it's simply verifiable from the man's service number, ie his was 934), then there is a publication which gives brief information on the service career of each of these early recruits: it's called 'Contemptible Little Flying Corps: Being a Definitive and Previously Non-existent Biographical Roll of Those Warrant Officers, NCOs and Airmen Who Served in the Royal Flying Corps Prior to the Outbreak of the First World War' by I McInnes & JV Webb (ISBN: 1843420538). I borrowed the book via my local library, and it gives quite a bit of background info on the RFC as well.

More generally, I found a lot of info from Google searches - info on individual RFC squadrons, etc.

Hope this helps,
best wishes
Clare