Uniform insignia help needed

Lizh · Leading Aircraftsman

Uniform insignia help needed

William Heron · Group Captain

Hi Lizh,

Not much help so far, but I beleive that the badge with the propeller in the circle that you refer to was the insignia of the R.A.F. for an apprentice or boy entrant as it might have been known as then. You estimate the age of your Uncle to be about 16/17 so this may be the case. If you email me the photograph at
layman431@hotmail.com I will try to help further.

Bill Heron/Niagara/Canada

Lizh · Leading Aircraftsman

Thaks Bill,

I have emailed you, your info has led to filling a big gap in my reseach, thanks so much.

Regards Lizh

Date: Mar 16, 2010

Although far from any form of expert on RAF insignia or uniforms, I believe Bill is correct. I believe RAF apprentices may have worn a red and white chequered cap band and the propellor may have indicated LAC rank. There are a few websites you can explore that have various pictures of uniform, badges and insignia. You can find them using a good search engine.

If you'd like, send me a scan of the photo and I will try to discover more for you. roful@sympatico.ca Hope this helps, too.

William Heron · Group Captain

Hi Lizh,

Just checked in on the forum and saw your message re emailing me, I didn't receive any emails that I'm aware of re the subject. If you could try again and put "insignia"
on the subject line I'll try to help further.

Regards,
Bill.

manxix · Squadron Leader

Lizh

I see your rank here is Leading Aircraftsman - or LAC !

2 bladed propellor = LAC
3 bladed propellor = SAC - Senior Aircraftsman.
but
these are cloth badges.
I used to have the 2 bladed prop badge too but my trade didn't have the 3 bladed rank.

Hopefully the other arm badge is an Eagle, not wings.
Mine was an Eagle on both arms at shoulder level.

Cap band ? Don't know but the apprentice suggestion seems reasonable.
The main apprentices were from RAF Halton and anyone having graduated from this very strict apprenticeship would forever be known as having been a "Halton Brat", and would be very proud of this.
Many of the very top officers in the RAF had been "Halton Brats" once.

The cap badge had to be the ordinary brass RAF badge, (laurel wreath with letters RAF inside and a crown between the tops of the wreath), unless the wearer was of Commissioned rank. There was an in-between badge for a Non-Commissioned officer, a Warrant Officer.

Phil

Lizh · Leading Aircraftsman

Hi Phil,

After Bill suggested that the insignia was that of an apprentice I checked into it and found that he was right, and that Frank did his training at Halton.

I think you are quite right when you mention a "strict apprenticeship" because I have managed to get my hands on a copy of the training manual and to learn what was in that heafty text in the time they had, those boys certainly had their work cut out!!

Frank did in fact go on to become a P/O but was unfortunately shot down on his 1st Op, the raid on Mailly Le Camp May 1944.

Regards Liz