Service numbers old or recent?
 

I have my original brass button stick embossed with the service number 893351 been in my possession for donkeys years (I was a 684*** App starting in 1958 so the numbering predates later entries !) have been trawling through service numbers and as far as can deduce it was/would have been issued to specifically WAAF in 1939 within a block of numbers, now am trying to pin it down further to maybe if a family still exists to pass it on to them, any ideas as to how I get to identify the individual ???, thanx Paul H

A few years ago I got my Grandfathers Army war record from SPVA, Kentigern House, Glasgow (192****)
If it's older, then maybe National Archives at Kew.


I can usually tell the difference between RAF Swinderby and RAF Halton recruits by service no.

My mate was a AC B******** and was x84246**
I was AC C******* x84247**

So there aren't many AC A******'s in front of us on the first intake at Haton on 9th Nov 1993!
(No1 School of Recruits, not Apprentices)

Interesting ?, part of my query was that I joined in September 1958 at Halton with a 6 digit number 684***, the number on the button stick which has been in my possession since then (don't we hoard things ?) shows a 6 digit number that cannot possibly be a Halton number due to the sequencing etc, RAF records show that a block of 6 digit numbers were allocated to an intake of WAAF's in 1939 - did WAAF's get inducted at Padgate then ??? just hoping it triggers some memories and info.

When I joined in 1979, this was something I did not see at RAF Swinderby. Luckily for me, Brass Buttons were no more! :)

423****
Oct 1967.
never forget your service number do you

I remember sitting in the KG5 night club in Berlin circa 1980, watching the floor show with my crew, when a group of 'elderly gentlemen' entered.

One asked me if i was in the services, and I told him to mind his own business - it was Berlin during the cold war after all.

He then asked me if i was ashamed to admit it, and I said no, but it may pay to be discreet given where we were.

He then said that he was military, as were all his companions and showed me his ID. I said that it had no service number on it.

He then said that 'my dear boy, when one hits 2 stars and above, they don't bother with the number!'

I made my excuses and left.

For me it was Swinderby June 1976 S812****

Mine was 417****
Sept 1955
Haven't forgoteen mine either.

In 1980, while languishing in DKMH Catterick, an old gentleman in the ward told me his number only had three digits. From memory he served at Catterick as part of the RFC/RAF during WW1. His wife was also in the same hospital and they celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary while I was there. Sadly, neither of them ever left the hospital.

Royal Navy officers in the 60s and 70s (& probably earlier) didn’t have ‘service numbers’. We were advised they would only be issued in times of war.

Halton Sept 1955, 81st Entry, my number 681XXX became V0681XXX in the late sixties.

That looks South Cerney(ish)

I was assured that it was because the Queen knew us all personally!

Mog

So why have I a series of letters and numbers stuck in my mind from 1965??

Direct Entry Aircrew, then.

Direct Entry GD(G)ATC back then was 433**** ... I know that 'cos I were one!

My late Father was 568XXX

Must be some 8141s out there

Plenty! NCA 70s/80s

423 should be a South Cerney number. 423xxxx Dec '64.

A few months ago I went in for surgery. The anaesthetist knew I was ex-service, and as I was going asked "last three". A bit of a surprise, but I told him, just before I went out. Not been asked that for well over thirty years.

Swinderby Nov 1971 S8098 ***

OCTU 73 - H8026***
RNZAF 05 - H1018*** :) and years to go yet :)

423xxxx - South Cerney/AOTS '66

PMRAFNS Cranwell 1982 520****. Still remembered tot his day, in fact went to the International Bomber Command Memorial in Lincoln the other day and the tour guide an ex-nav asked had anybody served and what wa their number, came straight out without a thought.

As an aside the memorial may close after Christmas due to Covid a=which has depleted their reserves.

Using the simple example indicated at https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/...pplement/10419 announcing the appointment of General Nick Carter 505216 as CDS suggests that the elderly gentleman concerned was pulling your plonker - quite hard !:eek:


Absolutely correct, since Service Numbers were only considered necessary for Royal Navy and Royal Marine officers following the introduction of computerised pay accounts.

Jack

Jack, glad to know it wasn't because in the 80's we were all oiks lacking Mog's and JE's social connections.:)
For what little it's worth mine was C0 or CO (never been quite sure) followed by five numbers and a letter.

Computerised pay accounts reminds me of bring told by the relevant pusser shortly after arrival at BRNC, that if I moved my account to N?????t's Dartmouth branch I would be paid a day earlier.

277**** issued Sept. 1955. Not forgotten, despite just celebrating my 86th ( deferred Nat. Svc. )

No 5200xxx
I was recruited in Salisbury Rhodesia in 1960. Enjoyed a 3000mile steam train ride over 2 or 3 days covered in soot from the steam engine, no air con in those days from Salisbury to Cape Town. Then a lovely cruise over 2 weeks with Pretoria Castle (Union Castle line) to Southampton. Very depressing arrival in Feb 60 to mist, smell of coal smoke, dirty train and bloody cold weather. Very hard for a colonial boy. Joined 147 course at South Cerney and then 35 years of thorough enjoyment in the truckie fleet.
Not many around, I am sure, with the 5 million sequence.

Royal Navy officers didn’t have ‘service numbers'
 

This was indeed true from at least the 1930s until 1966.
My father was commissioned in 1938, having joined BRNC Dartmouth in 1934 (age 14), and retired from the RN in 1966. His records have his name, no number. When he applied for an Australian War Veteran's Pension - it has some additional benefits to the Age Pension - the folks at Veterans' Affairs in Canberra were quite discombobulated by an ex-serviceman with no Service Number (:eek:). This was last year, so I guess it may be that nobody in the office had dealt with an application from a WW2 veteran before!

My late Father a founder member was 178XXX.
Fast forward forty years and I was 519XXXXX, two extra XXs.

4230*** South Cerney 1960.

My brief time in the RN, Dartmouth 63-64, I had no number ... but I still have the payslips (£0/15/0 per day) and Tax/NI paperwork.

5200xxx was the number given to this old codger when starting a University Cadetship in 1968. Long afterwards a letter was added at the end. Jumped ship on 38th birthday to go to Saudi.

As an aside, there was (is?) the unusual 9xxx numbering for WRAF Graduate Entrants. Obviously not a lot of them!

352**** in 1956 but I believe that this was reserved for ex-ATC cadets joining the Service. (as was a 4** number for ex-CCF cadets.). Never forgotten, even now !!

Bill

ExSp33db1bd
The book "Stand by your beds" by John Hamlin lists National Service numbers.
Yours falls into the batch 2700000-2787999 allocated July 1953 to Feb. 1956. 88,000 in all and all non ATC.
I was 5011609 in the batch May 1956 to an unknown date. ( I went in 1 May 1957 ). A total of 1334 in that batch and all ex-CCF(RAF). Not until I read that book did I have it confirmed that there had been separate numbers for ex cadets - although it had been rumoured.

I had 2, as a VR Cadet on the UAS I was 26xxxxx, then when I was awarded a cadetship I was changed to a 520xxxx.
IIRC there was the non PC joke about the similarity between RAF Police Dogs and Members of the WRAF, answer 6 digit service numbers!
Takes cover!

I actually helped with the move from South Cerney to Church Fenton.

Due to posting, I sadly had to give up my dog for adoption ... so he became 8988 Air Dog "Defa".

He then failed the course due to 'lack of determination' and was re-homed to a family.


https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....47bdb6610.jpeg

Historic paperwork! I still have all/most of my P60's and the first of those from my RN days which showed a service number was for the tax year 1972/73. Never had a reason to remember the number though.

Thanks for all the amusing posts sadly doesn't get me any closer to who the button stick was originally issued to, never mind onwards & upwards, rgds PH.i