Royal Flying Corps: People Index

Compilations of resources for those who served with the Royal Flying Corps (May 1912 to March 1918), Royal Naval Air Service (July 1914 to April 1918) and the successor RAF are available in spreadsheets organized by surname. These are large files. Surname B comprises 41,981 lines, the surname P file has 22.113 lines.

There are often multiple entries for each individual, officers and non-officer aircrew. Depending on the source information available is surname, rank, initials, forename(s), date of birth, regiment, squadron, source, reference, and more. The database does not give a complete history of each individual, download the Military record from the AIR 76 series in the (UK) National Archives for the full-service history of an Officer.

There are many Canadians. The B surname file has 670 entries for Canad*, the P list 416. William Avery (Billy) Bishop has 25 lines of information, Lester Bowles Pearson just one line.

Access these lists at www.airhistory.org.uk/rfc/people_index.html, and the parent site airhistory.org.uk for the early history of aviation from a UK perspective based upon original research material.

Thanks to Glenn Wright for alerting me to this resource.