A question for the intelligensia

[Canadian Break]

Chaps, for the brains amongst you; how do I get (online) a page from the most recent Air force List? My Father has produced a piece for a monthly magazine charting the history of the Family contribution to the defence (or otherwise) of the Realm and he would like an extract from the most recent Air Force List showing the details of Yours Truly. Rather than disappoint the old octogenerian, I thought one of you would know the answer. CB

[Yozzer]

Unfortunately it's only accessible via the RAF intranet.

http://www.manning.raf.r.mil.uk/review/Manning/Air%20Force%20List.htm

..or a visit to a library where the reference section should have one you can photograph or photocopy (& scan).

Does that mean I am intelligensia??

Gizzajob; Ican dudat:

[Really annoyed]

I love it when somebody posts a link to an internet system that nobody outside of the Armed Forces can use. Very useful.:ugh:

[Willard Whyte]

Someone did post one a while back, valid Nov 8 2010. No idea how it was done, or the website from whence it came, but I saved a copy. Don't know if I can upload it here either.

Not very useful that. Ne'er mind.

[Tiger_mate]

Really annoying

As these are anonymous forums the origins of the contributions may be opposite to what may be apparent

Assumptions have a habit of making you look like the tit! Especially as "most recent Air Force List showing the details of Yours Truly" would suggest that intranet access is quite possible. Furthermore an alternative suggestion was included which if not possible directly, could at least be investigated through a third party. So whilst I am a little disappointed at responding to your troll bait, hows about you go f* yourself somewhere else.

[London Eye]

Really Annoyed, at least it was an attempt to be helpful that may potentially be of use to the op - more than can be said for your 'input' ........

or mine :O

edited to add that I posted at the same time as Tiger Mate who perhaps put it more clearly!

[Canadian Break]

Yozzer; you Sir, are an scholar and a gentleman whereas Really Annoyed, you, Sir, are a tit! Perhaps if you learned to read what is written, rather than what you choose to read. life would be more pleasurable for us all! . W2, please try harder; the Old Man is 80 in a few days and has just been diagnosed with Alzheimers, so I need to sort this pronto. Close enough for Government work will suffice.CB

[Really annoyed]

"most recent Air Force List showing the details of Yours Truly" would suggest that intranet access is quite possible.

It's available on Airspace on the internet if you have a login, I am looking at it now.
Let me know your Service number and I will PM you your name. The intranet is not available outside of the MOD.

[Aeronut]

What about a search for your gazette entry, eg commissioning or promotion etc.
London Gazette Home Page (http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/)
Also try googling your service number and RAF.

[Canadian Break]

RA - very, very good try. My cover would be totally, totally blown and my chance to denigrate people with impunity would be removed forever - but thanks for the offer old chap. CB.

[Whenurhappy]

Thanks RA (not a sentiment that others would normally share with you)

I wasn't aware that the Air Force List was available over an insecure net (Airspace) - I am enjoying looking at the fellow chisellers and seeing their seniority and how they 'big up' their postnominals with membership of pay-to-join 'professional' bodies. Perhpas I should join some random body and add meaningless, yet impressive-sounding letters after my name. And I just thought that was the province of retired SNCOs trying to get into the job market...

On a wider issue, it is sad that this list is no longer available in the public domain, security concerns notwithstanding. The Army List has been an invaluable source of family historical research; in future, generations will not be able toa ccess these lists, I fear.

[Red Line Entry]

The one I miss is the Retired List. The nature of our existance is that people just seem to disappear over time - it was always good to be able to check the list to see when/if they had left, and indeed confirm that they were still alive!

[foldingwings]

Thanks for the steer to Airspace. However, the list I have found only covers those with State Awards and Post Noms. Should I look elsewhere?:ok:

Foldie

[5 Forward 6 Back]

Who looks after the Air Force List then? I'm disappointed to see they've got my details a bit wrong.

[lj101]

CB

This MAY help

Latest Editions of the Navy, Army and Air Force List - a Freedom of Information request to Ministry of Defence - WhatDoTheyKnow (http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/latest_editions_of_the_navy_army)

Regards L

[Whenurhappy]

Yep, I'm disappointed too. My VC and DSO aren't listed (Official Secrets Act, Dontcha know...)

[Tankertrashnav]

On a wider issue, it is sad that this list is no longer available in the public domain, security concerns notwithstanding.


Do you mean just on the internet, or is the printed version not available in, say, public libraries any more? Also do I take it that the retired list is no longer produced in either printed or online format? Slightly confused (as usual :confused:) by the info on that link!

[Whenurhappy]

Nope - no longer produced in hard copy - a savings measure taken 3 -4 years ago. A great shame. Alternatively, look up individuals in the London Gazette.

[foldingwings]

Don't rely on the London Gazette either! The RAF stopped funding entries in that journal about 5 years ago. I had to use 'inside' contacts to eventually get a record of mine published so that I could add it to my Family History records for my kids!

Foldie:ok:

[Pontius Navigator]

TTN, the AFL has gone to that great hole in the skies called JPA.

The input to the AFL now depends on JPA issuing a pay cheque every month. You retire, no pay cheque, and you disappear.

When I got my first degree I told the CS at Strike and my entry on the RAFR list was duly amended. Whenurhappy, when I paid for my MRIN that too went in. There was a small hiatus when I was made an AFRIN as that had not been on the approved list. The list was amended and that too went on.

By the time I got my third degree, as I was paid by the Civil Service and not through JPA I ceased to exist. I spoke with the SO2 at Air who said they were trying to see if CS RAFR could be 'captured' but didn't think it was worth the effort. The retired list was dead easy to ignore.

[Tankertrashnav]

Thanks for the answers Whenurhappy and PN. Shame the hard copy AFL has gone

When I was dealing I occasionally got hold of 19th Century army lists. Absolutely fascinating - the pre 1881 lists had a table listing the prices of commissions. An ensign in the infantry was the cheapest at £500 IIRC. On the other hand a colonelcy in the cavalry would set you back several thousand. Dunno how Sharpe is supposed to have got his commission in the Rifles - maybe exceptions were made for talented rankers. Most of the officers in the smarter regiments also appeared in Burke's Peerage, although an element of that still exists!

[Whenurhappy]

Pontius Navigator,


Any organisation that has an 'R' at the beginning is definitely worthwhile. It's some of the loggie, HR and Sy 'professional' bodies that are distinctly dodgy.

It took me 18 years to get my post-nominals correctly entered on the list - and then they did away with it. On one ocasion they wouldn't recognise my Masters' with Honours (in my field an Hons degree was different from a plain old Masters') on the basis that they couldn't find MSc(Hons) as a State Honour! I eventually had to go to a clerk in the SUpport Unit in MB and I carefully dictated the post-nominals to him and jokingly added DSO, which he duly typed in. I said that I was only joking and 'backspace, backspace, backspace' corrected the entry. I, too, have three degrees plus membership of organisations with a Royal Charter, and now the name on my payslip rolls on to the second line, pushing the post-code off the end. Luckilyy I'm serviced by a BFPO (though, not for much longer).

I didn't realise that we were no longer 'Gazetted'. That's a real shame - like the AIr Force List -for posterity.

[xenolith]

I, too, have three degrees.

Well done on getting the Three Degrees, Luckilyy you had the SUpport

I liked the one in the middle best, she had the biggest knockers:ok:

[Whenurhappy]

Typos, that's all - typed on my Blackberry in the back of the car, on my way home from a do!

[KG86]

If we are all supposedly members of the 'intelligensia', how come nobody has spotted, until now, that the word is misspelled!

It should be either intelligencia or intelligentsia.

[Finningley Boy]

If we are all supposedly members of the 'intelligensia', how come nobody has spotted, until now, that the word is misspelled!

It should be either intelligencia or intelligentsia.

Ssssh! its a secret so we don't give ourselves away by spelink efrything korectly!;)

FB:)

[olympus]

To fulfill a rather pathetic desire to see my name in print I have recently acquired a copy of the 1968 issue of The Army List.

I think it was more freely available in those halcyon days of long ago; my copy is marked 'Official Copy' and 'Restricted - The information given in this document is not to be communicated, either directly or indirectly, to the Press or to any person not authorised to receive it'. No mention of 'Top Secret' or anything like that.