Dr Will Spencer

What about Free to Air cricket and Le Tour? Too much decent sport is now behind or going behind paywalls.

Not the foggiest. A bit like Q!

Send me some names and I will run them through what I have.

The 371k includes officer and ORs, and some RAF as far as I can work out and they all have some service post 1920. As this collection includes many officers who served in WW1, its lack of priority is appalling.

The data on the 1.5/1.2 million is based on a search of only WO 423, using Discovery.

The 317K includes Hubert Gough. Born 1870, died 1963!!!!!!!!

As far as I am aware, they are just working through the mountain of records. They haven't applied much thought to the process. The 371k should have been done first, especially as they should all be open.
As for the metadata, it lacks key pieces of information & Q are not providing effective advice.

Service Records at TNA.
Over 1.5 million records have been catalogued in one series but 1.2 million of them are closed.
371K records for men born pre 1900 are still to be processed and these would be open immediately. Poor project or records management or just general malaise?!

TNA no longer have the tech or the tech support to generate copies from the microfilms.
If you consider film v digitisation I have a number of concerns which I will share with you. the next time I see you. Suffice to say, trust in the digitised version is questionable.

The originals in WO 363 and WO 364 were never made available at Kew.
The filming was done at Kew. The originals never left the country.
The microfilm is the accessioned copy for preservation purposes.
Getting your hands on an original box of WO 363/WO 364 is a very rare occurrence.

#OTD. This time 43 years ago, I finally ended up on HMS Hermes. My aircraft (848 D Flight) had been lost on the Atlantic Conveyor on 25/5 & HMS Fearless had sent us packing. The Wessex V XT468 of 845 B Flight survived 25/5 but need a crew. So a small element of 848 D Flight went to Hermes to use it.

Thanks for the young bit. I may look and feel young however, you are the younger!

I not that far behind you old man!

Thanks Simon.

Very true. Trying to use online resources to find them is challenging. The poor quality of the age calculations and the creativity of the old fools wishing to join up, makes the research interesting.
I am interested in men who had to be at least 56 in 1914.

Now home from my University of Glasgow graduation.

I can now get on with researching old men in the British Army in the First World War. Like me, they have to be over 56.

Should government records which are born digital, be "read only" when they are released to the public?
Yesterday, I downloaded a file which allows me to edit it!
If you can edit an official record, you can edit it to rewrite history, and pass it off in your research as "official".
Wrong? You bet!

Image of news announcement of the election of 217 new Fellows, Associate Fellows, Members and Postgraduate Members who join the Royal Historical Society today, 4 December 2024.

We're very pleased to welcome 217 new Fellows, Associate Fellows, Members and PGR Members who join the Royal Historical Society today: bit.ly/4eVl0Bu

Applications for #historians to join the Society are welcome at any time. Next closing date 13 December: bit.ly/45lOzr0 #History

I believe it is an interesting place. The bookshop is good too!

In the absence of his AF 3121, the failure of that recommendation, probably at the hands of the Commander in Chief of the BEF, based upon the advice of the relevant Military Secretary in the field, puts and end to the matter.

Thousands were recommended for an award and got nothing.

I took almost 8 years part-time to complete my PhD and was doing a job when I started. I must admit I left my job at TNA before my PhD was finished and also moved over 300 miles from my source material.

I can't offer much advice but you are always welcome to ask.

We get skies like this!

Better than the flightpath into LHR!

You and I are now in peaceful parts of the world.

Is that where you told me about when we last met? Nice.

Now that I am beyond corrections etc, I am reading this. I am very interested in various issues this book covers, especially war crimes from 1982, and institutional memory.

For those of you who jumped ship from X.

On Tuesday 30/4, I passed my viva.

Could any Fleet Air Arm, aircraft engineering Falklands vets please follow me. I have a cunning plan which requires your input. Thanks.

I am also known as warsmatter in the terrible place (x)!