JA Gray ID 7516670 RAF

Hi all,

I recently purchased some WW2 memorabilia belonging to JA GRAY.

I have his dog tags, 5 medals, sweetheart brooch and even a wonderful photo of this unsung hero.

All I know is that he survived WW2 and outlived his family, hence I found his medals etc in an antiques shop.

I have searched numerous sites (FindMy, Ancestry.com, Forces etc) to try and find out his history, but even with his ID number, I can not find anything about him.

Amongst the medals are the Italy Star, Africa Stay, Defence Medal, 1939-45 Star, 1939-45 War Medal and a 'veterans' badge. I believe he was wounded and discharged. The medals are in the original box to an address in Berwick On Tweed. There is also a pin badge with the initial E R C T. Again, I can find nothing about this other than it was made by Kirkwood and Son in Edinburgh (I have emailed them).

Any help and advise greatly appreciated.

Thank you

Gail & Sally

 

What makes you think he was RAF? the number seems to be too high for an RAF one (the dog tags should be stamped if he was RAF) - if he was in the Army the number would fall in the RAMC block. What dos the back of the box have as the issuing department?

edit - RAF/RAF OR Service Numbers (rafcommands.com) only has RAF numbers up to 4,099,999 and that was in the 50's (and I should also have said welcome etc rather than just jump in with questions, oops)

 

Welcome to the forum
forces records dont have WW2 records so dont waste your time
you wont find anything about him on the internet so dont go joining up and spending money

also post photos of the medals and anything else you have
if you share it on this thread you will get more help

 

Thanks AB64!
Made me take a proper look at the back of the box!
It has OHMS stamp and Officer I/c Medical Services & ATS Records Winchester Barracks.

 

Thank you! Pics posted.

 

I think there may be a bit of a mix in the group, side cap and photo clearly RAF, but Dog Tags and box RAMC, with things like this it could be a family with more than one Service Man and over time bits got mixed - they are nice items, just a shame the RAF lad isn't identifiable - is there a name or anything in the cap?

 

Nothing in the cap. I’ve taken a photo of all the medals that were in the box.

 

I opened up the back of the photograph. Found this signature…

 

ERCT initials on pin badge- the signature on back of photo is Travers I think.

Lesley

 

Thank you. Just don’t know what ERCT would stand for. I’m trying lots of different t combinations for the name too to try and find him.
Thanks again.

 

I think his name is E.R.C. Travers.

Edit. Forget that, I'm wrong

 

Interesting…

 

Just a little more on the box. On the address it shows ‘Royal air’ so now even more confused. Ive email the archives at the RAMC museum. Hopefully they can shed some light on this all.
Gail

 

No it doesn't . It reads 'Ryslaur' or something like that. The name of the house.

 

I looked that up, but closer inspection in actually Royal air. It’s weird.

 

I do find it strange it would have royal air

are you not sure it is the name of the house in the street
can you make out the road name then you/we could work from there

 

HI! The road name looks to be 20 North Road, Berwick on Tweed.

I have looked for Ryslaud, Rysland and other combinations.

 

It's the name of the house, then 20 North Street. Definitely not royal air.

Had a look on Rightmove sales, no info on that house at all . Found house on street view, old semi but no house name on the building.