Peter Hamilton RAF Record - Help Please

[Nik]

Greetings Members and thanks in advance.

I am trying to interpret my grandfather's RAF Service Record which I've attached as a PDF.

He evidently signed up before he was 18 as he was born June 16, 1900 and the first date listed in his record is May 31, 1918 when he was transferred *out* of 'RD', so he would have been 17.
The date when he joined CDD (Cadet Distribution Depot) is not given.
Nor is the date given when he was transferred from CDD to 'RD'.

I'm confused as to what 'RD' is.
On this Wikipedia page it Lists 'RD' as being 'Squadron 67', but it seems more likely that it was 'Recruit Depot'?

He was transferred from RD on May 31, 1918 to a Unit I find hard to decipher...
ODW - Squadron 52?

Then back to CW - Cadet Wing I'm assuming?

Any help in deciphering his record would be very very much appreciated.

Nik

AIR-76-206-24.pdf

[quemerford]

The record shows this:

CDD to Recruits Depot (no date)

medical board 25 May 1918; graded fit as pilot

Recruits Depot to 5 Cadet Wing 22 June 1918

5 Cadet Wing to 8 School of Aeronautics 20 August 1918

Demobilized 5 January 1919

Transferred to Class G Reserve 1 July 1919

 

It looks like he never graduated (as flight cadet?) from 8 S of A, so wouldn't have begun his flight training: at that time I'd expect to see a Training Squadron (TS) or Training Depot Station (TDS) if he had.

[hmsk212]

Hi There is also an Air 79 record for him as Pte 2 177007 :-

 

Name: Peter Hamilton. | The National Archives

 

Steve

[charlie962]

1 hour ago, hmsk212 said:

Hi There is also an Air 79 record for him as Pte 2 177007 :-

From Findmypast's copy

[Nik]

Thanks so much all of you for your amazingly prompt response.

I was taken in a very wrong direction because of the Wikipedia entry here -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_RAF_squadron_codes - 
which lists RD as 'Squadron 67'.

Following up on that (it's all I had) I checked out the Wikipedia entry for 'Squadron 67' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No._67_Squadron_RAF) which was an OZ Unit but I noted that it was "eferred to by British authorities from 16 March 1916 to February 1918 as "No. 67 Squadron RFC" to avoid confusion with No. 1 Squadron, RFC,^[3][4] not to mention No. 1 Squadron, RNAS."
So, being a greener, I thought that it was obvious (being born in Paisley) that he wasn't in the OZ Squadron, so he was likely transferred to either No.1 Squadron, RFC, or else No.1 Squadron, RNAS (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No._1_Squadron_RAF) which, in April 1918, became No. 201 Squadron (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No._201_Squadron_RAF) (if you follow the link on No. 1 Squadron, RNAS it takes you to No. 201 Squadron).

My misunderstanding was much more deeply confirmed when I came across the painting by Ivan Berrymann, 'The Final Curtain' (https://www.worldnavalships.com/item.php?ProdID=20454).

(I've attached an image of the painting).

"On the 20th of April 1918, just one day before his death, the legendary Red Baron, Mannfred von Richthofen, claimed his final victory. His famous Flying Circus was engaged in battle by Sopwith Camels of No.3 and No.201 Squadron. Claiming his 79th victory, he had shot down Major Richard Raymond-Barker earlier in the dogfight - the British pilot being killed in the resulting crash. However, it is his 80th and final victory that is depicted here. In the centre of the painting, the Sopwith Camel of David Lewis has been brought into the firing line of von Richthofen, and is about to be sent down in flames from the sky - Lewis was fortunate to survive the encounter relatively unscathed. Meanwhile the chaos of the dogfight is all around this duel, with aircraft of both sides wheeling and diving in combat. The other pilots depicted are Weiss, Bell, Riley, Steinhauser, Mohnicke, Hamilton and Wenzl."

Note that 'Hamilton' is included in the list of pilots pictured and that, from my reckoning, he was transferred to 'RD' (possibly/probably Squadron 201) on May 31, just weeks before the encounter depicted in the painting. So... you can imagine that my hair pretty much stood on end.
Was that my grandfather, at 17, in combat with the Flying Circus???

In the last days I discovered that the 'Hamilton' depicted in the painting was an ‘LA Hamilton’ according to the painter’s documentation of the work:
https://www.aviationartprints.com/wip_the_final_curtain.php

I looked up 'LA Hamilton' and discovered that he was a brave American, who flew many sorties, and was KIA:
https://parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com/2OD/the-biographies/lloyd-andrews-hamilton/

So...

In a short time I've gone from knowing nothing about my grandfather (I never met him - he died when my own mother was only three), to thinking he might have been flying against the Red Baron aged 17, to learning that he likely didn't graduate from flight school.

Nevertheless, my hat's off and my heart is touched by this teenage kid, lying about his age, to go and fly and fight for what he thought was right, in the very earliest flying machines.

Thanks so much for your knowledge and insight.

Nik

[charlie962]

2 minutes ago, Nik said:

Nevertheless, my hat's off and my heart is touched by this teenage kid, lying about his age, to go and fly and fight for what he thought was right, in the very earliest flying machines.

Well said.