Yesterday was a great day, apart from the weather until about 13:00, though when it began to clear it did make for some good photographs, here are some of the ones that I took.

The address has changed for service records, below is what is presently on the RAF website.

“Personnel Records
Royal Air Force personnel records are held at RAF Cranwell. If service number and details are known, please quote it in the correspondence. The personnel records department will only divulge information to the person to whom it refers or, if he or she has died, to his or her immediate next of kin. Anyone else must obtain written permission from the person about whom they are enquiring, or from his or her next of kin, before any information will be given to them.

A charge of £30.00 will be made for any information they provide; If cheques are submitted with queries, they should be made payable to ‘HMG Sub-Account 3627’. This applies to personnel records only. The only people exempt from charge are the person to whom the records refer to or their widow or widower.

The address is:
RAF Disclosures
Room 221B, Trenchard Hall
RAF Cranwell
SLEAFORD
Lincs NG34 8HB”

They are getting really stupid with the next of kin form at the moment, recent enquiries have been met with demands for proof of kinship via birth, marriage and death certificates. If you already have copies then straight forward but it can get expensive trying to get copies.

The speculated reason is that they have had a lot of enquiries and are too understaffed to cope so put plenty of red tape in the way to discourage all but the most determined.

Don’t let this put you off though. Once you get the service records then you’ll be able to see which ORBs you will need to look at.

A few more from aircraft parts I have seen, with the aircraft types in brackets.

C – Canadair (inspector’s id number is arranged vertically within the C) (Sabre Mk.4 & Mk.6)
CCF – Canadian Car & Foundary (Hurricane Mk.IIB and Mk.IIC)
F8 – Fairey (Swordfish)
FM – Fairey (Halifax)
LAP – London Aircraft Production Group (Halifax)
LTAF – London Aircraft Production Group (Halifax)
N – Noorduyn (UC-64 and Harvard)
R2 – Rootes Secturities (Blenheim, Beaufighter and Halifax)
RR – Rolls Royce (The two R’s overlap as in the company logo) (Most RR engined aircraft plus an electric motor from a Wellington Mk.III!)

I think he was still with 55 OTU when he died. He was probably flying a Hurricane Mk.I as that was the mainstay of that OTU.

Fighter Command Losses only covers operational losses so no info about OTUs and even non-op squadron losses.

I have run a search for Cyril Ingleby on the London Gazette site and found the following.

19th March 1942, Flight Sergeant 937625 Cyril INGLEBY (118898) commissioned to the rank of Pilot Officer. (Gazette Issue 35541, 28 Apr 42).

1st October 1942, Plt. Offs. (prob.) to be Flg. Offs. on prob. (war
subs), C. Ingleby (118898) (Gazette Issue 35791, 17 Nov 42).

29th December 1942, Pilot Officer Cyril INGLEBY (118898) Royal Air Force
Volunteer Reserve. (Gazette Issue 35837, 25 Dec 42).

19th March 1944, Flg. Off. to Flt. Lt. (war subs.): C. INGLEBY, D.F.C. (118898). (Gazette Issue 36458, 4 Apr 44).

1st July 1946, Flight Lieutenant (war subs) to Flight Lieutenant C. Ingleby DFC (118898). (Gazette Issue 37870, 31 Jan 47).

19th September 1945, In accordance with A.M.O. A. 146/47 the undermentioned officers are granted the seniorities in their substantive ranks as stated: — Flight Lieutenants:— G. INGLEBY, D.F.C. (118898). (Gazette Issue 37892, 25 Feb 47).

There is one more mention in the LG but it is a copy of that in issue 37870.

It actually looks like the oil cooler from the core of the main engine coolant radiator.

More info can be found on the BGS Earthquakes web site (it went down very quickly last night). There is an online questionaire for anyone who felt or for that matter didn’t feel it within the affected areas. The link is below.

http://www.earthquakes.bgs.ac.uk/