Originally Posted by
Dunregulatin
To preempt the purists getting in a twist, no we weren't officially entitled to the F denoting the first 50 Sqns but the unit had formed as one of the first Air Defence Cadet Corps units and applied to be part of the ATC in time but, to coin a phrase, we wuz robbed!. So we took the F anyway and it stayed for a very long time.
From what I understand, the 'F' suffix denoted
any unit which transferred from the ADCC to the ATC on 5 Feb 1941 not just the 'first 50'.
Should the squadron subsequently be disbanded and re-formed,
theoretically it would lose the suffix however from reports I've read, this did not necessarily happen.
Some squadrons which were originally established at public schools subsequently transferred to the CCF in 1948 losing their squadron numbers in the process*
I joined 2204 (Chesham) Sqdn as a second class cadet in 1962 (becoming commisioned in 1979 and moving to command 1811 [Marlow] Sqdn in 1983); my brother was a member of 2204 squadron from about 1957 to 1961 when he joined the RAF; 2204 Sqdn had just changed its name from 'Germain Street School' Sqdn and previously had been 1414 (Chesham and Amersham) Squadron c1950 - we had a silver cup showing this number and date but when it disbanded and re-formed is unknown and HQAC don't keep any such records.
So you can see from the above that squadron numbering can be best described as 'haphazard' post WW2.
*
Needs confirmation.