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WAAF Records for WW2

WAAF Records for WW2

Posted: 6 Jun 2013 9:58PM GMT
Classification: Query
Surnames: Ridley
Please can anyone help me to locate the records of those women who assisted in the war effort by joing the Womens Auxilliary Air Force during the second world war. I would be grateful to anyone who can help with this. My husband's mother (Florence Muriel Ridley) was a member, but we have no record other than pictures of her wearing her badge, to go with her son's memory of her in uniform.

Re: WAAF Records for WW2

Posted: 7 Jun 2013 6:05AM GMT
Classification: Query
Second World War service records are not yet public records and are held by the Ministry of Defence. For details of how to apply for a deceased person's records, go to https://www.gov.uk/requests-for-personal-data-and-service-re....

Re: WAAF Records for WW2

Posted: 7 Jun 2013 8:08PM GMT
Classification: Query
Very helpful, thank you.

Re: WAAF Records for WW2

Posted: 2 Apr 2014 9:34PM GMT
Classification: Query
Surnames: Pollock
Thank you also! I browsed through to this page to try to search for information relating to my grandmother, sadly deceased these past 13 years. Someone else researching another part of the family has upset my grandad about genealogy, and so I cannot now ask him for permission to search more directly for information about her time in the WAAF.

If anyone researching their family has any information, photos, etc concerning Hilda May Pollock, who once worked at North Luffenham (probably later in the war) and at some point had a job my mother thinks involved talking down pilots of stricken planes, please do get in touch. Even if you do not have anything about grandma specifically, I am interested in the work women did in the WAAF.

Re: WAAF Records for WW2

Posted: 10 Aug 2014 7:59PM GMT
Classification: Query
Surnames: LODGE, JEFFERY
Cant help you on Ms Ridley, but I am also searching for info about my late mother, Kathleen Mary LODGE/JEFFERY (I think she married my father during the war, so not sure which surname she was registered under. She was born in Dorset in 1922. and I recall her telling me that was in the WAAFs.

I would be so grateful if anyone remembers her or if anyone can point me to where I could find more information about her service in the WAAFs

Thanks

Chrissy

Re: WAAF Records for WW2

Posted: 11 Aug 2014 3:50PM GMT
Classification: Query
Hello Chrissy,

I'm sorry that I have no knowledge of your late mother to share. I have now given up all hope of finding out about my mother-in-law's WAAF service as I have been told that no records were kept regarding these women. I haven't quite given up feeling angry about that though!

Best wishes,
Sandy

Re: WAAF Records for WW2

Posted: 31 Oct 2014 9:32AM GMT
Classification: Query
Who told you there are no records kept? That's incorrect.The records exist but are not on general release and have to be applied for from the MOD. My mother was a WAAF and I successfully applied for her records.

Re: WAAF Records for WW2

Posted: 2 Nov 2014 1:55AM GMT
Classification: Query
Thank you for this information. The source of the contradictory statement that no records were kept was a radio programme.

Re: WAAF Records for WW2

Posted: 19 Nov 2014 12:44PM GMT
Classification: Query
Sandy, there are records but as someone else has said they have to be applied for.

If the person died within the last thirty years and not in active service at the time, the next of kin may request their records, but it is a very strict definition of next of kin, and there is a strict hierarchy as to how that next of kin status passes down. So in my case, my grandmother's husband is still alive though he is utterly uninterested in getting her records. I really will have to wait for him to die, as well as my aunt and my mother and most of my cousins before I am next of kin! So that route is just not feasible for a heck of a long time.

There is an alternative way. You have to download a huge form - I will try to find the link again and post it here - and you will need very good details of the person you wish to learn more about. Birth date, parents' names and place of birth are just the start. You will also need a copy of the death certificate to prove that they died, which you can apply for at the GRO. It costs £10 for death certificates held in England and Wales. It costs about £15 and takes some rather messy bureaucracy to get the same documents from Scotland, but is also possible.

You would have to have some idea of where your relative served or when, and if possible fill in her regiment or troop details if you have them. I suspect mostly this is to test that you aren't just randomly picking someone to research, which is understandable, but for someone as tight-lipped as my Grandma who kept her wartime secrets quite firmly as she felt she was required to do, it makes this bit of the form rather hard to complete.

I haven't got as far as sending off the MOD form. I think it costs £30 to apply as well as all the paperwork, but if I can get the details I am interested in, it would be well worth the effort.

Good luck!

Re: WAAF Records for WW2

Posted: 20 Nov 2014 7:01PM GMT
Classification: Query
Thank you for your detailed, most helpful response.
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