Recruitment into the RFC

[sgf]

Hello

 

I’m researching a distant relative and although I’ve found quite a bit of information relating to him my questions are of a more general nature regarding recruitment into the Royal Flying Corps.

 

The individual in question is Lieutenant Edwin Arthur Windridge who was shot down and killed on 9 June 1918 and was attached to RAF Squadron 103.

 

Now, if I’m interpreting his medal card correctly;

a) He appears to have initially enlisted into the 16^th Battalion the London Regiment, presumably sometime before 1 November 1914.

b) It then seems he commissioned into the 11^thNorth Staffordshire regiment, before

c) ultimately ending up in 103 Squadron.

 

So if my interpretations above are correct;

a) How would a private in the London Regiment have commissioned into the North Staffordshire Regiment?  Would it have been a promotion on merit or were commissions bought?

b) How would Edwin then have transferred to the RFC?  Presumably he couldn’t fly so why would the RFC want him?  Would it have been a case of volunteering?

c) Other records indicate that he initially served as an observer before becoming a pilot.  So why would he have been taught to fly? Was it a case of existing pilots being killed and replacements being sought from the ranks of observers?

 

Apologies for the simplistic nature of my questions but I’m just trying to understand the process behind Edwin starting out as an army private and ending up as an RAF Lieutenant.

 

Any observations would be most gratefully received.

 

Regards

 

Simon

[Coldstreamer]

hello

 

a.He probably showed ability and was commissioned on the back of that 

b. why not ? someone has to be a pioneer and do new things

 

some info is in the london gazette - heres a snippet

https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/29242/page/7331

[PRC]

The Army Service Numbers blog has 1699 being issued by the 16th Battalion on the 5th August 1914 and 2673 on the 1st September 1914, so that pretty much brackets the time your man joined up.

http://armyservicenumbers.blogspot.com/2008/10/16th-county-of-london-bn-london.html

 

Obviously can't speak for the circumstances of this individual and it's difficut not to over generalise, but to draw on an example of a unit that I'm interested in, the 8th Norfolk, they had what was called a "Businessmens Company". A few have left indications that they enlisted as Privates rather than going for Commissions as they literally expected the war to be over by Christmas and wanted to see some action - something they thought they would be denied if they went through the more rigourous Officers' trainining. In fact they didn't. like many of the newly raised K2 & K3 Service Battalions, go out until the summer of 1915.

 

Meanwhile the vastly, (and fastly) expanding Army was desperate for officers, particularly as that was where the highest attrition rate was, (proportionally). Enlisted men could then apply for one of the new Temporary Service Commissions - although certainly in the early years of the war they would not be successful without the endorsement of their Commanding Officer.

The Businessmens company I mention above - Bank Officials, Insurance Actuaries, Solicitors and the like, some with a degree of minor Poblic School education, seems to have supplied a disporportionate number of men from the ranks who were commissioned.

 

Some would also go on subsequently to serve in the Royal Flying Corps, and of those I seem to remember only one had any potentially pre-exisiting suitabily and even that is a stretch - they were a member of a pre-war motoring club that held races. It seems like once again, if you were endorsed by your Commanding Officer then you were pretty much in bar the medical.

 

Unfortunately the historial archive website of Flight Magazine has been down for several weeks so can't check that to see if there was an obituary for him that might cast more light.  The Aeroplane 1914-18 only shows him in a Casualty List.

 

I  take it you're aware his Long Service Papers survive at the National Archive. Unfortunately there is no date for them being put on line, so you would either need to visit Kew or arrange to get them copied - there are several researchers on this forum that offer that service.

https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C1175835

This may well included details of who recommended him.

 

Hopefully others can provide a more accurate guide to the path he might have taken.

 

Cheers,

Peter

[Chris_Baker]

"How would a private in the London Regiment have commissioned into the North Staffordshire Regiment?  Would it have been a promotion on merit or were commissions bought?"

 

Neither.

 

He would have applied for a commission. It would need to be approved by his commanding officer. He would also have been interviewed by a senior officer (often the Brigadier-General of the brigade in which a man's battalion was serving at the time), pass a medical examination and supply references. The final decision was from the War Office. In 1915 there was as yet no rigorous officer selection and training system and if the applicant was of the right "stamp" he was unlikely to be rejected. Edwin was serving with the Queen's Westminster Rifles, a rather select and swanky battalion of the Territorial Force from which many such applicants were commissioned as officers.

[quemerford]

sgf: your man was an Observer with 21 Sqn and would likely have initially applied for RFC service as a Pilot and been assessed during his selection process as fit as Observer. There may have been medical or aptitude reasons for this. Application was made in this way: note the airman below had applied as Pilot and this was struck through. He too later trained as a Pilot after a stint as Observer.

 

 

He would then have been interviewed by his CO and a recommendation made as to whether he was fit for transfer. Again, see below.

 

 

This type of detail will be available in his WO 339 file at The National Archives. EDIT: it's WO 339/122014 for EA Windridge.

[MaxD]

A little illustration of Chris's point above about commissions from the Queen's Westminsters (and they weren't the only one of its type).  Their war diary has an entry at the end of each month from Jan to July 1915 (I didn't go any further) listing numbers of men commissioned from Rifleman and/or sent to Officer Cadet School.  No names are recorded.

 

You may have these snippets:

 

He was commissioned into 11 North Staffs.  This was a UK based battalion and his RAF record shows his last army unit as 9 N Staffs (presumably before RFC). https://www.northlincsweb.net/103Sqn/html/103_sqn_ww1.html has some useful stuff, note hat it says about the expansion of the RFC.  The London Gazette shows his RFC seniority dating from Dec 1916 in a list of Flying Observers.

 

His medal card does not include N Staffs among the list at the top it could be that he went straight to RFC training in UK.  You will have noted that 103 Squadron went to France on 9 May 1918 (the squadron history says 12th) .  One month later he was reported missing and a message dropped by a German aircraft over French lines stated he had died. Airmen died in the Great War and Soldiers died in the Great War have entries for him, both a bit misleading. There is also a POW enquiry record for him.

 

The missing bit is his London Regt to RFC service which, as already said, will be in his service record.

 

[pierssc]

Simon

 

I am a big fan of the Airhistory website and the RAF Museum's Casualty Forms as they can add a bit of light to a story - as in this case. 

 

Windridge's Casualty Form is at https://www.casualtyforms.org/form/26247

The Airhistory site is at http://www.airhistory.org.uk/rfc/people_index.html

 

In 1916 it was relatively easy for officers to volunteer as observers on probation - they were always in demand and there was little or no prior training given at that time.  Having completed their probationary period they became qualified observers, could put up their "wing" and were accepted into the RFC.

 

Windridge's Casualty form reveals that he reported for duty with the RFC on Boxing day 1916.  (It doesn't say, but he was at that point probably at 1AD at St Omer and I suspect he may well have already been in France with his regiment - you'd need to find which Bn he was with and there might be something in the war diary noting his departure.)  Two days later he was attached  to 46 Squadron (If you refer to TSTB II below you will find that on that day 46 Sq suffered its first casualty - a Morane 12 in a fight with a Roland, and Windridge was presumably the replacement for the deceased Observer.  46 Sq equipped with Moranes had arrived at Droglandt aerodrome on 26th October) .  On 2nd January he went to the 2nd Army Artillery school (presumably to learn about artillery spotting) for an undisclosed period.  He went on leave between 24th and 30th March 1917.  On 25th April  he was attached to 21 Squadron (46 Squadron converted to the single seater Sopwith Pup so no longer needed Observers).    On 25th May he was Gazetted as a Flying Officer (Observer) and transferred to the General List (ie was accepted into the RFC) with seniority backdated to when he had joined 46 Squadron.    On 1st July 1917 he was promoted to Temporary Lieutenant. 

 

The Airhistory site summarises the same information (the Casualty Form data has been incorporated) but adds that Windridge was involved in a crash with 21 Sq on 27 July 1917: [A4182 RE8] "Baulked by 2 machines and crashed on landing from photography. 2Lt RN Swann/2Lt EA Windridge"

 

He was sent to Home Establishment on 13 August 1917 (having survived eight and a half months in France/Flanders at a time of very heavy casualties).

 

He then presumably applied and was accepted for pilot training - this was not uncommon for experienced Observers.

 

He rejoined the BEF as a pilot on 9th May 1918 (Airhistory adds 103 Squadron and that they went to France by air).  It looks like the Casualty Forms record ends there - but if you look at the following record https://www.casualtyforms.org/form/26248 (note the 1 digit difference) it looks as if the person scanning copied the back page of Windridge's form above the one for JE Windrum as it notes that he was posted "Missing" on 9 June 1918 and then believed killed.

 

Trevor Henshaw's "The Sky their Battlefield II" notes (I expand the abbreviations for ease of reading)  "D1007 DH9 103 Sq Bombing mission, left 7.45 pm, seen East of lines going east OK.  Missing in Action (Lt EA Windridge KIA/Lt VW Allen MC MM KIA) (source casualty report) (updated entry in this edition)"  Airhistory adds that the target was Ressons.

 

There is a bit about Windridge and 103 Squadron at https://www.northlincsweb.net/103Sqn/html/103_sqn_ww1.html including some details of missions flown and a claimed EA.

 

{Edit - there's another entry in Airhistory I missed - there's no initial given so it wasn't with the other entries.  It's a report of a forced landing on 5th June 1918 "Ok [C6251 DH9] f/l Flontaine les Herman after engine seized at 500ft on flight from Serny to Fourneuil. Lt Windridge Ok/Lt Allen Ok"

 

For further detail the records of the relevant squadrons at the National Archives may throw further light.  The amount of info available varies.  I haven't looked into this.

 

Whether or not Windridge initially applied for pilot training may well be in his army file WO339/122014 at the National Archives.  This has not been digitised and the only thing is to look at it in person or get someone else to do so (there are professional researchers or a member of the forum may do so if you ask nicely).  You can apply for a quote to get it copied but the cost may be unacceptable.  https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C1175835

 

Cheers

Piers

 

 

 

Edited 2 January , 2020 by pierssc
Further info

[sgf]

Gentlemen

 

Thank you so much for taking the time to respond to my queries in so much detail.  I've learned an enormous amount, not only directly relating to my queries but also pointers to websites which I'll use in the future. It's quite amusing that I thought I'd already discovered 'quite a bit' about Edwin - I'd barely scratched the surface!

 

Thank you once again - very much appreciated.

 

Simon

[Airshipped]

Windridge's AIR 76 file makes reference to the Germans dropping a message in French lines to state that he'd been killed. Presumably there'd be some additional information in that regard in the squadron's ORB?

 

Unfortunately a researcher could charge a few quid for trawling through a set of large files. Further, given the mix of hand-written and typed documentation it can be easy to miss information generated in respect of a particular individual.

 

https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C4090087 and/or

https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C4082084 

 

On a slightly more optimistic note the combat reports are likely to be in a box with a number of other smaller files. (The squadron in question would not have generated a large number of combat reports, so once the folder is located it's relatively easy to find specific records). 

https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C7158244 

 

However, as mentioned elsewhere in the thread, the WO339 file is likely to turn up far more relevant information. (That said, the WO 339 and WO 374 were 'weeded' in the 1930s, with much useful material being destroyed. What generally remains are items relevant to pensionable service, e.g. sick records, service history, original attestation papers, and so forth).