Finding an Ancestor in WW1 RAF Service Records Online

The Royal Air Force (RAF) was the world's first independent military air arm and by the end of the First World War it had become the largest.

Now you can search and download First World War service records of RAF officers. This database is of interest to Canadians whose ancestor may have enlisted in WW1 as a pilot. Canada did not have its own Air Force and any individual wishing to join the Air Force had to join the RAF. 

Approximately one-quarter of the aircrew in British Royal Air Force (RAF) squadrons were Canadian. A large RAF training establishment operated in Canada to produce new aircrew.

The collection contains records for over 99,000 individuals and is searchable by first name, last name and date of birth.

Searching the indexes is free but to obtain full details a small fee is charged by the National Archives UK. I tried this database with a generic search for my PEER ancestors. Because I search for all PEER individuals in North America, it's always of interest to me to see if one of them can be found in any new database online.

My search gave me two results for PEER. In order to view the scans of their service records I saw that it would cost me 3.50L for each man (that converts to $11.00 Canadian) The website stated each man's records consisted of 3 pages. I added both to my Shopping Cart and then made the purchase. This is what I love about ordering from the National Archives UK website - after entering my Credit Card details, I was given an immediate link to download the service records. The link is good for 28 days.

As is common with Military Service Records you never know what you're going to get. Some are full of information, others are not.

The Service Record I downloaded for Walter James Peer gave his name, date of birth, next-of-kin in Canada, address in Canada and place of employment. There wasn't much recorded in the section for his whereabouts throughout the War.


The second record for Harold Emerson Peer had a full page of entries for his movements throughout his time in the RAF but no date of birth, no next of kin and no location in Canada. For me that $11.00 was well worth it as I pursue my genealogy with the goal of obtaining as much detail as possible about every individual in my database.

One caveat - when the National Archives UK website states there are x number of pages in a set of records, be aware that the first page is a Title Page with no information on the person involved.

J. L.McFarland WW2 Dog Tag Found - Let's Return it to Family (Case #21)

David Kirkpatrick from Redlands, CA found a dog tag inside an old cabinet he purchased.

 J.L. McFarland's dog tag:

"I recently acquired an old File Cabinet from the Redlands High School in California.  The school is located near the old Norton Air Force base (San Bernardino, CA) and several members of the Air Force stationed at the base lived in Redlands.  When I Iooked at the back of the cabinet, it was marked with Property of Air Force, Department of the US Army.

While Cleaning the file cabinet I found a WW2 era dog tag that I would like to return to the family if I can find them.  I tried the NARA records, but the SN came back with no records so I fear it was destroyed in the 1973 fire.

J L McFarland
38479621  T43   A

(religion was marked as P for Protestant)

According to the second digit of his serial number "8", J. L. McFarland  enlisted in one of these states:  NM, TX, AR, LA or OK

If you can help find this soldier or his family, please leave a comment on this blog post. You may post about possible living individuals but in that case I will copy any private information to my file on J. L. McFarland instead of making it public. You can also email me at olivetreegenealogy AT gmail DOT com.

I know my amazing readers can do this!

Update June 29th: This soldier's name is Junior Lee McFarland and he passed away in 2009. Thanks to an amazing reader, we have his nephew's name and contact information.