A C Muirhead RAF

[thedawnpatrol]

Looking for any info on this officer, i have his log book, but i dont think he completed his flight training ?

thank you

[charlie962]

It would help to have a few more clues.

Eg  Log book covers what period and where?

Any more on his name, age, origins?

[Tawhiri]

The only A C Muirhead that I can find in the AIR 76 files at the National Archives is Alan Cogill Muirhead, born 20 January 1890.

https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D8209068

Looks like he also has an Army officer's record too, on the General List. The Gazette says he was first commissioned as a temporary 2nd Lieutenant on probation on 21 February 1918.

https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/30550/supplement/2611

Edited 25 April by Tawhiri

[thedawnpatrol]

Thanks, log book covers January to March 1918 he is recorded as a 2nd Lieut 

he may well be Alan Cogill  Muirhead

 

[charlie962]

Alan Cogill Muirhead was first posted to No2 School of Aviation (Oxford) on 4/1/18 then to CFS (Central Flying School ?) 20/4/18. He seems to have been medically downgraded in July 1918.

I think previously in the RGA.

Does this fit with the log book?

Edited 25 April by charlie962

[Tawhiri]

He certainly seems to have made a pension claim at some point, as there is at least one pension index card for him. His death looks to have been registered in Devon in 1970. There is also a possible marriage to a Malvina Irene Stewart Roberts in Plymouth, Devon in the third quarter of 1915, his occupation in the parish register being given as hosier, which I think is consistent with his AIR 76 record.

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KC9P-Z5R

Edited 25 April by Tawhiri

[thedawnpatrol]

Thank you all for your replies, yes i dont think he made the grade one way or another………….but still a lovely photo of him in the Royal Aero Club style.

would be nice to find out about his Army service prior to joining the RFC 

here are the first and last page filled in and the photo.

[mickdavis]

The logbook entries show him with the 18th Wing School of Instruction at Acton (the Ruffy Baumann school) - 165 was a local number applied by the school; each of the civilian schools within the unit was allotted a range of these numbers for their machines.

My point is that the AIR76 file for AC Muirhead has him graduating from the CFS on 31 May 1918 as a SE5a pilot yet the logbook has him with only 2hr 20min dual instruction by 14 May - it seems highly unlikely that he could have completed training at Upavon, on Avros/Pups/SE5as, within the space of a fortnight. 

2 SoA was 2 School of Aeronautics (not Aviation)

The photo, incidentally, shows him in front of a Caudron, so presumably taken at Acton - other such photos I've seen were taken after soloing and used for RAeC certificates.

[mickdavis]

Forget my claptrap about graduating by 31 May - just checked the full TNA AIR76 file and his transfer to Non-Effective Pool on 31 May suggests some ailment. Other comments do apply, however.

[thedawnpatrol]

Thank you Mick, thats all very interesting. Not everyone madethe grade……