Hello
My Grandfather  George Bell 1371429 R.A.F.  was killed 15th May 1941 At R.A.F Dollarbeg . Cause of death gunshot wound to chest, I assume some sort of accident but my Grandmother was told nothing. I contacted the Air historical branch several years ago and was told they had his file but they were very vague about teling me any other details Can anyone provide any information.

Regards,

Mike

Quoted from mikeberry1962

Hello
My Grandfather  George Bell 1371429 R.A.F.  was killed 15th May 1941 At R.A.F Dollarbeg . Cause of death gunshot wound to chest, I assume some sort of accident but my Grandmother was told nothing. I contacted the Air historical branch several years ago and was told they had his file but they were very vague about teling me any other details Can anyone provide any information.Regards,Mike

Hello Mikeberry, and wellcome to Secret Scotland. I had the occasion a couple or so months ago to request information from RCAF Records, about a Canadian pilot killed during WWII, while piloting a RAF Lancaster. I received scads of information about this pilot from RCAF Records... even the results of his initial tests to become a pilot! With regard to the RAF however, no such luck. I wrote to the following address:

Ministry of Defence,
R.A.F. Personnel Management Centre,
Innsworth,
Gloucester, GL3 1EZ,

My letter to them was by snail mail as i could not obtain their e-Mail address. They did acknowledge my request and gave me another address to write to. So far I have still not heard from the RAF. According to Canadian RCAF records, all such personnel information , including the RAF, must on request, now be made available to the public.

If I were you Mikeberry, I keep pestering them for all the information that is on file. If it is really important for you then it might be worthwhile to have a lawyer write to them on your behalf. Good luck with your search!

Hello Dugald,

Thanks for that, Ive got loads of information on my Greatuncle killed in WW1 , But nothing when it comes to WW2. Very annoying!!.

Mike.

Hi Mike, welcome.

As Dugald notes, the information you are looking for must now be provided to you if it is available, and there is no valid reason fit being withheld.

The is a requirement of the Freedom of Information Act. As this relates to the RAF, I'm not referring to FOI (Scotland), which has some differences from the English version, which I will point you to for guidance.

The following address gives you initial guidance and the form the request should take:

http://www.ico.gov.uk/Global/f.....D0-9B95-77834CF95A0C

Requested information must be provided within a reasonable time.

Refusal to provide the information must be supported by valid reasons.

You can also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office if satisfactory responses are not obtained, so "vague" responses to a proper FOI request are not an option. And it's worth adding that complaints are regularly reported as being upheld in the news, as organisations try to wriggle out of embarrassing replies.

Best of luck.

Hello,

Many thanks for all the help,

Regads,
Mike.

Mike,
Just as an aside. I was working my way through a backlog of AA Brigade War Diaries and I came across mention of a Gunner Binnie who was accidentally shot at Drone Hill Radar station on 6/9/1939, and later died in Berwick hospital. There are no further details, but I imagine this was a lot more common than we tend to think.