Catalogue description Records of the Department of the Master General of Personnel and the Air Member for Personnel

Details of Division within AIR
Reference: Division within AIR
Title: Records of the Department of the Master General of Personnel and the Air Member for Personnel
Description:

Records of the Department of the Master General of Personnel and the Air Member for Personnel relating to the administration of Royal Air Force personnel and including service records:

  • Selected RAF personal files, AIR 7.
  • Flying Personnel Research Committee, AIR 57.
  • Selected civilian personal files, AIR 73.
  • RAF officers' service records, First World War and immediate post war period, AIR 76.
  • Index to airmen and airwomen's service records, AIR 78.
  • Airmen's service records, mainly First World War, AIR 79.
  • Airwomen's service records, First World War, AIR 80.
  • Casualty Branch P4(Cas): Enquiries into Missing Personnel, 1939-1945 War, AIR 81.
Date: 1914-1988
Separated material:

The majority of records of RAF officers and airmen who served later than 1920 are held by the Ministry of Defence, Personnel Management Agency, RAF Innsworth, Gloucestershire. Records of service of Air Transport Auxiliary personnel were presented by the Ministry of Defence to the Royal Airforce Museum.
Legal status: Public Record(s)
Language: English
Creator:

Air Ministry, Department of the Air Member for Personnel, 1922-1964

Air Ministry, Department of the Director of Personnel, 1919-1922

Air Ministry, Department of the Master General of Personnel, 1918-1919

Ministry of Defence, Department of the Air Member for Personnel, 1964-1997
Physical description: 8 series
Publication note:

See also Air records as sources for biography and family history (PRO Records Information Leaflet 13).
Administrative / biographical background:

The Master General of Personnel was an original member of the Air Council, but lost his seat in 1919 when his post was reduced to Director of Personnel under the Chief of the Air Staff. He was restored to the Council as Air Member for Personnel with full responsibility for his own department in 1922. At the same time he took over from the chief of the air staff the Directorates of Organisation and of Royal Air Force Medical Services. In 1923 the Directorate of Organisation returned to the Department of the Chief of Air Staff, but in the following year the Air Member for personnel took over the Directorate of Training from that department.

At the outbreak of the Second World War the responsibilities of the Air Member for Personnel included postings, discipline, manning, training, education, medical services, the Women's Auxiliary Air Force and religion, with appropriate directorates. In July 1940 training and education passed to a newly-created Air Member for Training, who was also given responsibility for the Air Training Corps. When the new post of Air Member for Technical Services was created in January 1947, the post of Air Member for Training was abolished and the Director General of Training was renamed Assistant Chief of Staff (Training) and transferred to the Department of the Chief of Air Staff.

In 1948 a Directorate of Legal Services was established within the department to deal with questions of military law following the separation of prosecuting functions from the Judge Advocate General's Office.

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