FC Burrage wih whom did he serve

[joka]

My apologies if this is the wrong forum but I thought it might be the best place to start.

I have started to research my maternal grandfather's WWW1 record and have very rapidly run into difficulties.

I know he served in the RFC although he didn't join up until called up in 1916. A photograph shows him wearing the uniform of a sergeant. After casting around I managed to find him on an absent voters register and have his service number and his posting with 58th Reserve Squadron which I believe to have been in Egypt when the roll was drawn up. I have always understood him to be an aircraft artificer as he was a mechanic by trade.

I live in Scotland so visiting the records office is difficult and the website I contacted to research for me stubbornly refused to reply to my emails- so I let things slide.

Recently, I idly searched the National Archives and came across the record of an RAF officer with the same surname and initials. The name is not particularly common and I strongly suspect he is my grandfather. However, this record shows a posting to 2a Reserve brigade RFA. Does this mean he left the RAF to join (or rejoin?) the army. Could he have been a gunner in aeroplanes? Were such servicemen in the RAF or Army - of course when it was the RFC it might have been administratively simpler.

Has anybody any information on this area of war service and can anybody decipher the "shorthand" used in this very short record which I have attached?

Any help would be gratefully received.

joka

[joka]

Sorry but the upload failed it seems it is too large although it seems to be limited to only a few entries. The particular phrase that I would like explained is IS of A under the heading unit which authorised.

joka

[sotonmate]

joka

If he was in Egypt with the RFC (an Army unit) then he would have had a Medal Index Card. I haven't detected one for the name you quote in the Army section. He could well be in the RAF section. If you can post the service number and any rank(s) too it might unlock some doors.

Sotonmate

[joka]

Sorry not to have responded sooner but I have been out of the country with only very limited computer access. Frederick Charles Burrage (definitely my grandfather) according to the absent voters register had the service number 49819 and the register states he was in 58th Res. Squad. R.A.F., Egypt. As I have said he certainly held at least acting rank as a sergeant, unless he posed for his photo in someone else's uniform. Having known the man I am sure he didn't do that.

Would he have qualified for medals as he didn't volunteer but waited until 1916 to join when conscription was introduced?

Additional info that might be of help is that he was born 9th May 1891 in Sydenham Kent and married to Dorothy May Burrage nee Risby.

The officer F C Burrage is probably a red herring.