How Do I Research RAF Training?

What to check first in this record

Training appears as schools, courses and posting entries in the service record. A training unit is a posting like any other, and its records may explain a skill or trade that later postings only name.

A search term that returns nothing in one catalogue may return everything in another, because catalogues index different fields. Try the holder catalogue directly. A suspicion written into a timeline as if it were a fact is hard to remove later, because every later entry gets built on top of it.

Reading what the record actually says

Do not extract a single line and discard the page. The page, the form, and the neighbouring entries are what give a line its meaning. When a file is thin, read it twice: once for what it says, and once for what kind of file it is. A thin file read as a thick one will be over-interpreted.

A date written in one format on one sheet and another format on the next is the same date wearing two formats. Convert carefully, and keep the original. Ranks, trades and roles should be read with their dates, because acting rank, temporary postings and reorganisations all leave traces that look like contradictions.

Common traps in this record type

Change one filter at a time, spelling, initials, number, unit or date range, and keep a note of which combinations you have already tried. A dead end shared by many researchers is usually a coverage problem, not a personal one. The research guides for that record type will often say so plainly.

• A trade title whose meaning changed between periods.
• Acting rank read as substantive rank.
• A remustering that looks like a different person.
• A very common trade title that narrows nothing on its own.

How do you work through it step by step?

A step that involves another person, a holder, an archive, or a relative, should be prepared before it is taken. Unprepared requests get vague answers. A method that works is a slow one. Each step below earns the next, and skipping a step does not save time, it creates a check you will have to do later. At the end of each step, ask whether the timeline got shorter or longer. A timeline that only ever grows is probably absorbing guesses.

• List every rank and trade entry with its date, in date order.
• Note acting rank separately from substantive rank, where the record distinguishes them.
• Check a trade title against a period glossary or museum source for that date, not against modern usage.
• Use the trade to narrow the next records, then let postings supply the detail.

The next record in the chain

Let the question this record raised choose the next record. A record opened out of curiosity, rather than out of a question, rarely advances a timeline. Where this record and another disagree, the next record should be one that can explain the disagreement, not one that repeats one side of it. A good stopping point is a referenced fact and a named next record. Stop there, even if the story feels unfinished.