Aircrew Named "Idris", WW2, Possibly KIA 1941/2?

I'm not sure if I should start a new string or continue with this. I need help with the abbreviations that are on this close-up of a G.A.J. RICHARD's service card. See attached

What dose S.O.S. and T.O.S. mean?

What dose AFRO or AERO mean?

Why dose the four lines, all having to due with the missing plane have different RAF numbers?

Finally the last line describing the accident ends in Sig No C7/504d/15-7-41 6 OTU?
I know OTU and I see the date.

Thank very much to all.

 

Taken On Strength
Struck Off Strength

No image showing to allow meaningfull help to be given on the other items you list.

Ross

 

OK - many thanks again, Harry - very informative.

I have to state that my assumptions above were generated partly from other researcher's links & surmising, plus family story (gained from unexpected contact from James' eldest grand-daughter only two years ago, via another thread of mine here on WW2 Talk - she e-mailed me out of the blue after doing her own Google search on her Grandad's name & came up with that thread...and gained me & my branch of the family as cousins!). Our communications since then have been initially emotional, but slowing to very intermittent. I have asked her, her sister and her mother to all consider requesting James' service record - even given them details & addresses for the application - but to no avail yet; I am now looking into acquiring the record myself, instead.

It was they who told me how James' baby Alan came to bear his middle name (Idris), but they had no idea who Idris was, except James' Best Man at his wedding to Vera, and that the story ran that Vera was furious at James for naming him thus (he had another name in line, it seems) - although she understood why when James said it was in memory of his close friend.

Now- that's quite a vague quest, to say the least; I spent hours scouring likely candidates on the CWGC website (far too many Idris's!!), but with help from another RAF Ops historian via Facebook, we narrowed him down to Idris Price - but I think I'd have a tough time gaining a copy of Idris' records as I'm not a relative, and without a photo from his family (or perhaps record or other RAF sources), I can't be sure at all that this is the "right" Idris... A royal pain of a quest, for sure - hence, I keep trying different avenues...

Now, James W Love was born between January & March 1920, details found via FreeBMD website in the Morpeth District's parish records - I know this fact is correct as James was nearly 8yrs younger than his eldest brother (my Grandfather, who was born 12/08/1912), so that is 100% accurate; I wonder if the CWGC entry is registered wrongly, then?

Also, the "Master Gunner" annotation came from another researcher who also found James' brief posting to 51 Sqdn, just prior to being re-posted to 78 Sqdn; it doesn't matter to me whether he was listed as "Master Gunner" or just "Gunnery Instructor" - all I wish to do is confirm his history, however it unfurls. Maybe there are just too many assumptions - but I was told by two experienced genealogists that family tree building needs a gifted imagination by tangential thinking, sometimes!

 

Harry, I believe you are misinterpreting the service number allocation blocks. The block 505001 to 549999 was allocated to civilians from Oct 1925, as I understand it the next time civilians were allocated a block of numbers was in March 1938, so the block 505001 to 549999 was used from Oct 1925 through to March 1938. The service number 549261 being towards the end of that block of circa 50,000 numbers suggests he joined up in or nearer to 1938 rather than 1925.

Barry, It’s dejavu all over again http://ww2talk.com/forums/topic/51703-another-search-for-an-idris/?hl=idris

Why don’t you just spend a tenner on getting the marriage certificate, it will be signed by the Best Man as they act as a witness to the event, they take about a week to arrive and it will stop everyone pissing in the wind. Otherwise you are never going to know for sure whether it is Idris Price or one of the other hundreds of Idrises.

Pete

 

Cheers, Pete, for clearing that up...and my humble apologies for this thread keep bobbing up the pile (I didn't rekindle it, Guv - 'onest!)
In all truth, my memory is shot - I'd completely forgotten about that other thread due to genuine degeneration of memory and pressure of too many things happening all at once - plus I've been snowed under with work AND completing a book for publishing (Oddly enough, the WW2/POW story of James' elder brother, Jack - "March By Moonlight", out this month)...

However, now that you chaps have revived this string, I'll concentrate on completing it - even if it's just to give you guys some peace & quiet!
I'd be happy to stump up the tenner, but I'll give his descendants a prod, as they now have all the details but couldn't be pushed into requesting the certificates & records.

I wasn't aware of the witness procedure back then - my own certificate wasn't signed by my Best Man (to be honest, I can't remember who witnessed it, but it wouldn't have been him!), so I'd assumed the same would apply. Guess I should've paid more attention, eh?

We'll give it a whizz, anyway - thanks for the prod...

 

I think I got it posted.

 

The four reference numbers relate to different signals sent recording the stages from missing to presumed dead.

The first message is missing recorded by the RCAF in the file wrapper as RAF34 and relates to Air Force Routine Order 893.

Next is a procedure message transferring him from No.6 OTU strength to RAF Depot as Non Effective. This is filed in the RCAF wrapper as RAF11 ( seems that his paperwork was in No.6 OTU establishment despite record saying posted to School of Army Cooperation on 14th June). This started the casualty replacement procedure for the unit.

The next item is a partial RAF Branch file reference and relates to a signal sent from No.6 OTU listing aircraft in Flying Accidents (Not believed due to enemy action) RAF Form 765C - an extra copy was required for for Dominion and Allied Casualties.

Finally after 48 hrs from being reported missing he has been declared presumed dead and this is filed in the wrapper as RAF19 but recorded as date of missing rather than 14th.

The RCAF reference enclosures eg RAF11 and 19 are associated with immediate signals and so appear in the file wrapper timeline well before routine movement signals eg RAF34.

Your next stage is to get his full RCAF service file/casualty file to see the full enclosure. The image you have posted is only the index card to this file.

Ross

 

Snailer ...just returned to base.

Thanks for establishing J W Love's entry to RAF service.I should have realised that there was a similar interpretation for my own service number more than 10 years later when my service number was issued in a block which reads as being in a category about one year before I joined.

Sound advice for Barry to solve his query along with action to access J W Love's RAF service record

 

As you were, chaps - I've obtained the wedding certificate at last...and I had been misinformed that Idris's surname might have been Price (or even Williams):- it was in fact, Idris M DAVIES!
My humble apologies (and very grateful hanks for all help in this thread), but the quest begins all over again, here:
Wrong "Idris" Previously Sought - Right One, Now?