What is 6.T.C. on a training certificate?

[annieb22]

I wonder if anyone can tell me what the particular instruction was that's mentioned in this certificate. It looks like 6.T.C. but I can't be sure and don't know what it means in any case.

C N Ellen was initially a CPO in the RNAS, working in photography, probably on land and in the air. He was granted a commission in the RNVR in Nov 1916 and went to Crystal Palace and then on to Eastchurch Observer School before re-entering the RNAS. This certificate relates to the period at Crystal Palace when he was presumably undergoing officer training.

[Jon_B]

Annie,

I think it is GTC, possibly meaning Gunnery Training Classes or Course. His military experience had been limited to photographic work, and in preparation for becoming an Observer Officer he would need some instruction in aerial gunnery, as well as his training at the Observer School at Eastchurch which was to follow.

Anyone with more knowledge than me on this?

Jon

[researchingreg]

In the RFC at the No1 School of Instruction it was 'Course in Aerial Gunnery', in the paperwork I have, which I suppose could be shortened to CAG. There is no ref to GTC. However it was probably different in the Navy.

[annieb22]

Thanks for the suggestions. It does make more sense for, what I thought was a '6', to be a 'G'.

Cyril Ellen had actually handled a Lewis gun before he became an officer as I have a report of a sticky situation he was in in June 1916. I'm learning that many things were being made up as they went along and so I doubt Cyril had had any proper aerial gunnery training as an NCO.

I see from this web link (http://www.militaryhistoryonline.com/wwi/articles/airreconinwwi.aspx), however, that formal aerial gunnery training was being implemented at an aerial gunnery school from Sep 1915. I'm not sure where this school would have been but it's looking likely that Cyril might have attended this school whilst receving officer training at Crystal Palace in late 1916/early 1917.

[SiegeGunner]

The bottom loop of the character under discussion is identical to the bottom loop of the 6 in 1916, so I am pretty sure it is also a 6. The pen nib has clearly lifted off at the end of that loop and has not returned on itself at all, as I think it would have done if the character was a G. There is no other G on the document for comparison, but the C in C N Ellen gives some indication of how the writer would form the similar letter G (even though the C appears to have been drawn rather deliberately, evidently to over-write an erroneous L).

TC might be Training Company/Class/Course.

What we really need is some more examples of similar certificates.

[Tomo.T]

Could it be GTS with a badly formed S ? This would be Gunnery Training School and far more likely.

Tomo