Family History (Part 3)

Back in June I wibbling on about my maternal grandfather Albert Cox's service history and how, if I jump through the right hoops and crossed the MoD's palm with silver they would send it to me. With my mother's and aunt's help I got the paperwork together and my mother wrote them a cheque and I sent it all off.

This week the scanned document finally arrived. It is a single double sided sheet scanned onto A3 but the original looks like it was some odd Imperial size. Anyway after a bit of faffing (as I only have an A4 scanner) I've now scanned both sides in. They're a mine of information although much of it is cryptic initials. The RAF helpfully provided a "List of Common Abbreviations" which runs to eleven pages.

So what does it tell me that I didn't already know. Starting at the top on the front it's got his wife's name as Ivy Lilian Dorne. Now I believe her name was Ivy Lillian Orme and although I confess I can't be sure of the spelling of Lillian I'm pretty damn sure about Orme so it gives pause for thought on other data.

I do now have a date for their wedding, which I didn't have before¹ and dates of birth for all four children, not all of which I had (although the caveat about reliability applies).

The back is more fun as it lists his service history. Although his record begins on 01/04/41 with 3RC (recruiting centre) he is immediately sent back to Res (Reserve) until 15/05/41 which ties up with his RAF Certificate of Service and Release which has his service with the RAF VR starting on 15/05/41.

He's assigned to RAF 1st Wing and on 20/06/41 he's send to the 2SofTT (Second School of Technical Training). Ten months later on 22/04/42 he is assigned to 25 OTU (Operational Training Unit).

It then gets at bit hazy. He arrived at Wittering on 10/09/42 but then it looks like he might have been sent home for a while as there's an entry "Disemb UK" 06/11/42 and then "HE" (Home Embarkation) eleven months later on 09/11/43 and he ends up at Melton Mowbray on 06/11/43 where he stays for seven months.

On 14/06/44 he moves on to 43 OTU where he stays for nine months.

Then on 27/03/45 he's shipped out to the Middle East just before the war in Europe comes to an end in May. There's two entries there:

The second I'm sure is Khartoum in Sudan. The first, where he was for the first four months, I can't make any sense of at all and my Google foo has failed me². Any ideas gratefully received.

In essence then the his war service seems to have come in six parts:

So, interesting I think and I hope mother and his other surviving children are pleased.

You can see more about Albert Cox here on his Oldham and Cox family trees webtrees page.

1. On a side note you'll see that my mother Patricia was born six months two weeks later. This isn't news in our family and, as far as I can make out, it was pretty much par for the course back then.
2. My best hit is RAF Ein Shemer in Palestine but although the second word does look like "Shemer" I'm not convinced about the first. However RAF Ein Shemer does fit in one regard: his RAF Certificate of Service and Release notes oversea service as "Egypt, Palestine, Sudan".