Roll of Honour - Ruardean section WW2 (General)

by Jefff , West London, Middlesex, Thursday, March 08, 2018, 22:14 (2524 days ago) @ probinson

Hi Jeff,

My father and uncle were in the RAF in WW2. Neither died or, as far as I'm aware, were wounded. Hence why I'm not sure what the object of this list is or was. Other than a list of people from the Ruardean area that fought in one or the other wars. It could, at worst, be misleading.

As far as finding information about people who fought in the war, service records are available, though possibly restricted to some extent. I keep meaning to obtain my father's. It's a fairly straight forward procedure as far as I recall when I looked into it. I think you maybe have to prove your relationship though so not just anybody could obtain it. But if Cally wants more information on a relative who fought in the war, it should be possible to obtain their service record - which is what I was suggesting.

Hi PR,
I think the object is to publically recognise, thank, commemorate, all those who "served their country" as they say. I've seen many examples of public rolls such as this, and personally I believe they are worthwhile, altho' obviously such views are entirely personal.
eg http://www.longhopevillage.co.uk/History/WorldWar1/

But yes, I think some clarity on it's purpose could be useful.

Yes, as I understand it, researching official service records from WW2 are more difficult: you must apply to the Ministry of Defence, must be directly related to the serviceman or woman being researched, and must expect it to be costly and also time-consuming. Certainly far harder than researching WW1 online etc, altho more and more WW2 records are becoming available. I've never tried to research via the MoD, but I do recall a few years ago reading about these enquiries taking several months, partly due to Defence spending cutbacks hence less staff to respond to enquiries. Hopefully things have changed now, and for the better. I have tried a little online research into my Uncle who was a P.O.W. in Burma, but not much luck there, not least as the Japanese didn't keep great records plus I don't think the Red Cross were involved anything like so much as in European theatre.

Ref your RAF ancestors, this is already quite "old" but MIGHT still be helpful
http://www.whodoyouthinkyouaremagazine.com/tutorials/military/second-world-war-raf-ance...
https://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/research/research-enquiries/useful-links.aspx

I can strongly recommend all the books in this publisher's series, luckily for me our local public library is the main one for our London Borough so carries most if not all of them. These are just some of those from their specia-list military historian.
https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Phil-Tomaselli/a/799