RFC Pilot research

Thanks Kev

All I can tell you is that he flew Sopwith Camels and that after the war he and his brother and the two Trost brothers set up Walcot airlines in Croydon flying Ju 13fs. Perhaps he never officially transfered to the RFC/RAF is it possible that he flew as a Lancer?
Is there any detail about his service?
There is a reference to the airline here http://www.europeanairlines.no/?p=umwxhfux&paged=3

Just a thought. If the Joseph Kennedy in the 5th Royal Irish Lancers is the one I’ve found serving with them on Armistice Day, then he cannot have been RFC as the RAF was formed on 1st April 1918.

Regards,

kev35

Graham.

I’ve found evidence that Joseph Kennedy was serving as a 2nd Lt. in the 5th Royal Irish Lancers on the 11th of November 1918.

Nothing else yet.

Regards,

kev35

The pilot I am trying to trace is Jospeph Kennedy passed out from Sandhurst in 1917 He was posted to 5th Royal Irish Lancers initially At some point shortly afterwards he went to the RFC/RAF however the records stopped at that point.

RFC Pilot

Hi, again:
The Air Britain book “Royal Air Force Flying Training And Support Units” (which includes WW1 Units) is a very good place to start……
Andy Wis

With regard to Kew, my first visit returned little of value, but on my second, I was able to quote a Service number and was allowed to view the full personnel file, and copy its entire contents, including details of the “war wound” that caused his Medical Discharge! He was based at the Air Ministry in London at the time.

All officers of the RFC and RAF are listed in the Army Lists and I have a set which are searchable .pdf fles. These are also available at Kew and given time you can track personnel through units. The people on the Help Desk at the back of the room at Kew are the ones to ask.

The WW1 stuff at Kew isn’t what I’d call extensive. It’s alright for operational squadrons but the training squadrons in the UK are almost totally forgotten in their records.

I have found that any historical records from training squadrons is almost non-existent. Am I wrong on this – or have I just been looking in the wrong places?
I have always thought that an Air Britain-type publication on RFC training units would be a valuable and unique product to fill a lot of gaps, and there would be a good market.

RFC Research

Have you tried putting a request on “Great War Forum”? The link below would get you on the site…

http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/index.php?act=idx

Andy Wis

The WW1 stuff at Kew isn’t what I’d call extensive. It’s alright for operational squadrons but the training squadrons in the UK are almost totally forgotten in their records.

Also the Documents Online are pretty thin, I looked at a few while at Kew once and most of the service records are a couple of pages, certainly not worth the £3.50 price to view them away from the Archives. Also the scan quality was poor with of them, I could barely read the text due to pixelation.

On the other hand, you might get lucky and find one of the good files.

…..If you have access to ancestry.co.uk ……John

a number of local libraries now have links to Ancestry and you can access it (usually free)

Roger Smith.

Hi Graham,

If you have access to ancestry.co.uk all the guys who qualified for an RAeS Brevet are on there, I will renew my membership shortly if you are not a member, the other source I have used is flightglobal.com, archives, select the years of his service and search by name.

Good luck

John

Thanks thats a great help I’ll post when i find something waiting for some details from the family.

They did and they are, in AIR 1. You can do some stuff online as well.

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/records/looking-for-person/officerroyalflyingcorps.htm?WT.lp=rg-3123