RAF Rates of Pay - 1950's and 1960s
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AFAIR, pay was perhaps more akin to pocket money and the Mrs would have had to make do with the married allowance bit - £401 per year, exactly the same as the fl lt pension at age 38. (1961).
Pay rises were every two years under the Grigg Committee formula but were always 'spun' - nothing new there.
"Forces get 7% pay rise"
Yeah, 2.8% this year and 4.2% next year.
In the 50s and early 60s many officers were either 2 yr national service or on 5 yr short-service commissions. The later could undergo initial training, flying training, OCU and a productive tour on Canberra or Hunter and out.
Owning a car was an exception unless daddy bought it. One student nav had a Gestapo staff car, another a pre-war Hillman soft-top. Car sharing, ie part-share, was common. We didn't get paid enough to go off base during the week.
Bar bills were limited although Merrydown Cider did not count. As you ran out of credits you could not buy a beer or a round. At the end of the month all the credits were pooled and those with no credit bought Merrydown. The result, everyone drank up to the limit!
It didn't produce the same level of angst mainly because the average age was much lower. Those over 38 were rarer on the ground - no spec aircrew - with the bulk of the aircrew all on 5-8-12 or 16/38 commissions.
On a different thread there was talk of reducing the junior officer pilot cadre to around 700. In 1961 the monthly into training figure was around 100 per month and that ignored the Cranwell cadets. 1200 trainees per year, maybe 700-900 into the front line every year!
Thread Starter
Archimedes
Thanks for the pointer to possible NA files, certainly a better response than the guidance (non-guidance is a better description) from one of the staff manning the NA information desk yesterday.
I've noted the file numbers you've given for my next visit.
Many thanks
Tony
Thanks for the pointer to possible NA files, certainly a better response than the guidance (non-guidance is a better description) from one of the staff manning the NA information desk yesterday.
I've noted the file numbers you've given for my next visit.
Many thanks
Tony
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.... and I do remember the insulation on those houses was practically zero ..... you could get a 3mm layer of ice on the windows during cold weather .....
on the inside of the glass !!!!!
Do remember that, before 1970 when the Military Salary Scheme came in (I can only speak for Zobs, not Baldricks):
1. Singlies were not allowed to live out.
2. No-one paid food and accomodation charges. Just Extra Messing.
3. No-one paid cash in the Mess bar.
So everything was 'pocket money' for singlies (who also had real batmen, or 'mess servants' as some faceless tw.at later renamed them
). All you had to pay was a Mess Bill every month, tip your battie - and spend the rest on your Austin Healey 3000 or whatever. The PMC would 'speak to' any officer whose bar bill was deemed excessive. And unless you were over 29 and/or a Sqn Ldr, you were not allowed to keep alcohol in your single accomodation...
(so we kept it in our car boots!).
I think I was paid about 17/- a day at RAFC Cranwell in 1968 - and paid 'Twisted George' £1 10s 0d per month to be my battie. But I had to buy a Radio Licence at 7/6 per year - utter robbery!
When Military Salary came in, I was at University as an APO. I was suddenly paid £1200 per year; as I'd done a year at RAFC as a Flt Cdt, that rose to £1800 in my final year.....
And that was in the days when a brand new MGB cost £1312!!
"Tell that to 't lads of today.....!"
1. Singlies were not allowed to live out.
2. No-one paid food and accomodation charges. Just Extra Messing.
3. No-one paid cash in the Mess bar.
So everything was 'pocket money' for singlies (who also had real batmen, or 'mess servants' as some faceless tw.at later renamed them
). All you had to pay was a Mess Bill every month, tip your battie - and spend the rest on your Austin Healey 3000 or whatever. The PMC would 'speak to' any officer whose bar bill was deemed excessive. And unless you were over 29 and/or a Sqn Ldr, you were not allowed to keep alcohol in your single accomodation... (so we kept it in our car boots!).I think I was paid about 17/- a day at RAFC Cranwell in 1968 - and paid 'Twisted George' £1 10s 0d per month to be my battie. But I had to buy a Radio Licence at 7/6 per year - utter robbery!
When Military Salary came in, I was at University as an APO. I was suddenly paid £1200 per year; as I'd done a year at RAFC as a Flt Cdt, that rose to £1800 in my final year.....
And that was in the days when a brand new MGB cost £1312!!
"Tell that to 't lads of today.....!"
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And that was in the days when a brand new MGB cost £1312!!
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I had a job as a salesman and was earning £1500 per annum in 1960. I was delighted to give it up for a crack at aircrew and was paid around £4 a week as an "orficer cadet".
By the time I married (being the only way of getting regular sex without upsetting the Air Force Board) I was earning £40 a month which rocketed to £85 when I married. I managed to move from a civilian "grottage" in Wiltshire where I paid £23 per month to a sub standard hut at RAF Rudloe Manor for only £12 per month. There was a bonus there in that the security light outside mysteriously wound my quarters electricity meter backwards. I fitted it with the most powerful bulb I could find and saved considerably. Further savings were made by burning the lino from the underground comms centre on my living room fire.
By the time I bought my first house I was earning nearly £1500 a year-but the house cost over £4000.
Eventually left in 1977 earning £6,000 as an aircrew Flt Lt and joined civil aviation where everyone gets to earn like an AVM.
...and I still have a guilt complex that I never got shot at like todays young men and women!
By the time I married (being the only way of getting regular sex without upsetting the Air Force Board) I was earning £40 a month which rocketed to £85 when I married. I managed to move from a civilian "grottage" in Wiltshire where I paid £23 per month to a sub standard hut at RAF Rudloe Manor for only £12 per month. There was a bonus there in that the security light outside mysteriously wound my quarters electricity meter backwards. I fitted it with the most powerful bulb I could find and saved considerably. Further savings were made by burning the lino from the underground comms centre on my living room fire.
By the time I bought my first house I was earning nearly £1500 a year-but the house cost over £4000.
Eventually left in 1977 earning £6,000 as an aircrew Flt Lt and joined civil aviation where everyone gets to earn like an AVM.
...and I still have a guilt complex that I never got shot at like todays young men and women!
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As an Apprentice in 1965 I was getting paid £2/10/0 a week reduced to £1/10/0 after deductions. Also seem to remember having a clothing allowance of £11 a year but a new Best Blue would quickly wipe that out! Then as an SAC I think I started on £7.10.0 a week but could still manage to save from that. (To get it into perspective I was earning £8 a week for my paper round!)
