Old Military Personnel Photographs (RAF)

AndrewA123

AndrewA123

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Hello all,

Just hoping someone might be able to help me out.

Back in 2005 I lost my grandfather, who spent a long career in the RAF stationed at various locations around the UK and overseas.

This year will be my grandmothers 80th birthday and as such I'd like to obtain an old photograph of his time in the RAF to be framed alongside his medals.

Unfortunately after many searches of family photo albums etc it would appear that no lasting records of his time still remain in the families possession.

So, I'm hoping that somewhere there may be a photographic record of him stored on archive somewhere, however I've no idea who to contact or how to go about trying to obtain this.

The information I have to hand is his RAF number, title (Chief Technician), his Date of Birth and some of the barracks he was stationed at, although years etc would need further liaising with the rest of the family.

so, if anyone has any links or information which might be useful to me trying to track down photo's then please let me know.

Thanks in Advance

Andrew
 
Hugh,

Thanks for the links, I'll follow them up this evening, I've actually already stumbled across the first one and sent an email asking for assistance and I'll wait and see.

In regards to the box in grandmothers loft, unfortunately it can't be located. We suspect that it has been lost in one of their many moves. The few photo's she has all have other people in them or him not in full uniform. They will do If I can't get hold of one, but would like to try. Once again thanks for the links, I'll keep trying and look at the reunited link this evening.

Cheers.
 
Actually if you contact the RAF directly they have a specific department and some interesting characters who work in it from what I have been told who can point you in the right direction.
 
If you haven't got a suitable print of him I don't suppose there's any suitable negatives are there?
 
Thanks eric, Email sent to (what I believe to be) the correct address.

Kev, unfortunately if there are any I've not found them yet.

I've got family raiding attics and boxes of my grandmother and their own just in case someone turns up a gem, unfortunately I'm 250 miles away from their likely location.

Fingers crossed someone finds something, or one of the emails turns up trumps.

Cheers for your help everyone.
 
Contact Hillary White (photographic curator) or one of her minions at the Imperial War Museum.
+44 (0)20 7416 5333 / 5338 / 5309
IWM becomes the custodian of all military imagery after a period of six years where it is incorporated into the National Photographic Archive.
It's very unlikely that individual Military Units will retain anything after that period for reasons of space, if nothing else.
 
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Rob, many thanks, I've just logged a request online about 30 mins ago with IWM, should I not have a response back I will contact Hillary direct.

I thought you might come up trumps :thumbs: cheers.
 
Andrew, I suspect I'm of a similar vintage to your father. Although I spent 23 yrs in the Army, more than half of it was in or attached to RAF or Joint units.

You never know, it's a long shot but stranger things have happened. PM me some details.

John
 
Well, several responses from various locations and no joy. Unfortunately the Imperial War Museum Photograph Archive were unable to help. Judging from what Rob mentioned earlier, I feel i'm running low on likely alternatives.

The IWM have put me in contact with the RAFMuseum who are going to conduct a search, so... If anyone else has any further suggestions I'd be very appreciative.

Thanks
 
Have you got the squadrons he served on? Many of the squadrons have associations, most of whom will have some sort of web presence. Alternatively you could put an ad in the back of the RAF News or the RAFA magazine. It might be worth getting in touch with RAFA to see if they can give you tips on how to find more info.
 
Kev M said:
Have you got the squadrons he served on? Many of the squadrons have associations, most of whom will have some sort of web presence. Alternatively you could put an ad in the back of the RAF News or the RAFA magazine. It might be worth getting in touch with RAFA to see if they can give you tips on how to find more info.
Click to expand...

Cheers kev, I'll check it out.

I don't have squadron info to hand, but should be able to get that from the family without too much of an issue.
 
I can almost guarantee that the Squadron as it exists now will have nothing in the form of an image archive. Regardless of any other issues, they simply won't have the time or manpower to dedicate to the compilation and maintenance of this sort of thing anything beyond the last 10 years or so. Boxes of negatives? Old Prints? In all liklihood if they ever existed, they were probably 'skipped' years ago when we went digital.

RAFA may be able to help, but only in the putting you in touch with other Squadron members from that period who may also have copies of photos in private collections....

If the IWM couldn't assist then in all probability, any images that may have been taken weren't offficially sanctioned and will be part of someone's personal collection, in which case - unless you know the photographer's identity - you're stuffed.

Unlike the US Military, British Servicemen do not have official portraits taken as part of their personal documentation, apart from the passport-sized photo on our ID cards - and those are now digitally-generated and of extremely poor quality (usually taken on a PC web-cam type affair) - the Royal Marines, I notice, have recently begun doing this as evidenced by the portraits of this years' RM casualties in Afghanistan.

If he served on a large headquarters staff in the rank of Squadron Leader (SO2) or above, he may have had a portrait taken for a personalities board or similar at that specific location, but the liklihood of that having survived in pre-digital records is almost nil.

The sort of formal uniform portrait I think you're after would only have been done privately - if you don't have any then they probably don't exist.
 
Thanks again Rob, I've sent a few requests out, but like I said, if IWM don't have any I think I'm "Stuffed"

Once I compile a list of dates and regiments, locations etc I'll post a few queries on other forums that have been suggested and see if anyone has any personal photo's they're prepared to assist me with.

Once again, Thanks everyone
 
Arkady said:
I can almost guarantee that the Squadron as it exists now will have nothing in the form of an image archive. Regardless of any other issues, they simply won't have the time or manpower to dedicate to the compilation and maintenance of this sort of thing anything beyond the last 10 years or so. Boxes of negatives? Old Prints? In all liklihood if they ever existed, they were probably 'skipped' years ago when we went digital.
Click to expand...

I didn't mean the squadrons themselves Rob, although generally the memorabilia squadrons have is largely centred around those in growbags and not the engineers.

Many squadrons have Associations so that people can keep in touch, swap war stories, that sort of thing.

http://www.202-sqn-assoc.co.uk/home.html

http://www.550squadronassociation.org.uk/

Plenty more where they came from.
 
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