Defending the Skies
A project to index by name the
records of 329,000 airmen in AIR 79
Clive Hawkins
25 November 2011
Royal Air Force Formation
• The Royal Flying Corps (RFC) was in existence from 1912
to 1918.
• In July 1914 the RFC's naval wing was detached to form the
Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS)
• On 1 April 1918 the two services were merged again to
form the Royal Air Force (RAF). Men of both services who
continued after this date transferred into the new service
and were joined by new entrants.
• Records of those men who went on to see service in the
Second World War, as well as records of men whose
service number was 329001 or higher, are still maintained
by the RAF disclosures
Where are the Service Records?
• The first 329,000 airmen’s records are held at TNA in
Series AIR 79
• These are contained in 2807 files
• Arranged chronologically by Service Number, not by name
• Necessary to consult the microfiche name index to identify
service numbers in Series AIR 78
• The microfiche index is of poor quality and difficult to read;
the original card index was destroyed by RAF
The AIR 78 index is in microfilm format only
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The Project: Indexing AIR 79 by name will mean:
• Researchers will no longer need to consult the AIR 78
microfiche index to first find the airmen’s service number
• The whole series will be easily searchable by name on the
catalogue
• Fewer speculative requests for AIR 79s, will reduce
unnecessary original document productions
The indexing has been carried out by over 20
volunteers from:
• Staff from across ARK Teams and PSD
• External volunteers
• Interns from the American University in London
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What can the Service Records contain?
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Birth details
Religious denomination
Current and prior engagement in HM forces
Civilian occupation
Marriage details
Details of children
Person to be informed of casualties
Description of airman on entry
Service history
Details of discharge
William Frederick Hearn
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Where are we now ?
• Air 79 pieces 1 to 1080 comprising 120,700 service records are
currently on the catalogue and are fully searchable by name
• We have transcribed a further 62,000 service records that are
awaiting transfer to the catalogue
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