RAPVR?

[CornwallCI]

Anybody out there know what this stands for? Often seen after the names of WWII airmen in archives on flightglobal.com but I've no idea what it was.

[Finnpog]

A typo mistake for RAFVR?
RAF Volunteer Reserve.

[jamesdevice]

at least one example can be shown as a typo:

Eric Douglas Pratt
in this report of his award of the DFM he is stated to have been in the R.A.P.V.R.
Rushden Research Group: Pratt, Eric Douglas DFM (http://www.rushdenheritage.co.uk/war/Pratt-DFM.html)
However the report in the London Gazette states Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve
http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/36550/supplements/2701/page.pdf

[Corporal Clott]

I've taken a look at this and it seems that the old Times New Roman font makes "RAFVR" look like this:

RAFVR

Most journals of the time used this font (newspapers and Flight) and when text is transposed from these onto the internet the "F" become "P"s. Hence JamesDevice's RAPVR in his first link and RAFVR in his second.

It should read RAFVR or Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve - distinguished from the regulars by a VR on the lapels of their No1 uniform.

CPL Clott

[Mystic Greg]

All Second World War entrants to the RAF were commissioned or enlisted into the RAFVR, with only pre-War regulars and auxiliaries being 'RAF' or 'RAuxAF' respectively during the conflict. When the Service was re-structured after the War, those wartime entrants who chose to stay in full-time service, and were accepted, became 'RAF' (in many cases at lower rank to that held in the wartime RAFVR).