army service corps/206 Squadron dh9 s/no D-2855

[Bucky6686]

Does anyone have anymore information about John Waldron Mathews served joined Army Service Corps & went straight to France. Joined Royal Flying Corps at the Front as an observation officer on probation in 1915, 1918 was a captain in the 206 squadron died on the 1st august 1918 by Ypres. He is buried at Hooge Crater cemetery next to his observer Wilbur john Arnold John.  I have an account about his death and birth but nothing about his service history before his death. Any help would be appreciated.

[Loader]

If he went to France in the ASC there will be a Medal Index Card listing his medals earned in the army. It will show his rank when he first entered the theater of war & if before Dec. 31 1915 he will have a Star. Sounds like much research potential for him. Good luck.

[Dai Bach y Sowldiwr]

Have a look at this page on The Long Long trail, which tells you how to research a soldier:

http://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/soldiers/how-to-research-a-soldier/

If you have a subscription to Ancestry, you could search for his medal index card as Loader mentioned above:

http://search.ancestry.co.uk/search/db.aspx?dbid=1262

Using any details you might find, you could search for a service record which might exist, if he wasn't an officer.

http://search.ancestry.co.uk/search/db.aspx?dbid=1219

If he was an officer, you may find that there might be some officer files about him at the National Archive at Kew:

http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/

Just enter his name in the 'Discovery' search box , and see what it throws up.

 

 

[nieuport11]

Note that the Casualty ledger (AIR 1/969/..) and RAF Museum Casualty card refers to him as Matthews.

Last seen near Menin on bomb raid.

Medal card WO 372/13/168459

Military record AIR 76/339/84

Casualty report in AIR 1/858

 

[Bucky6686]

Thank you all i already have some of this information from my research but would like to have known if how many missions he flew, if he had a log book and stuff like that but don't know where i would find out? 

[nieuport11]

The RAF in their wisdom destroyed all the surviving log books some years back.

The 206 Squadron history is in AIR 1/177/15/212/1

Daily reports of operations 1917-1918 are in AIR 1/177/15/212/2 and AIR 1/177/15/212/3

Aerial photographs are in AIR 1/178/15/212/4 and subsequent files

The move to Egypt in 1919 is recorded in AIR 1/1011/204/5/1299

Combat reports are in AIR 1/1228/204/5/2634

 

This excludes the records of 6 Naval Squadron

[Hilary1559]

I too am researching this man for the Oatlands, St Mary WW1 memorial

The AIR 76/399/84 gives a really good breakdown of his life and service history  - enc

He flew a total of an incredible 550 hours before being shot down

He had been in South America until Feb 1915 as a Sheep Farmer

 

MATHEWS J W service papaers AIR-76-339-84.pdf