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General => Armed Forces => World War Two => Topic started by: ethorn on Sunday 19 November 17 12:05 GMT (UK)
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Seeking information about Robert E Gilmour, (Born in Midlothian, Scotland. 1921-1991) who was a navigator in WWII on a Lancaster Bomber. All I know about Bob is that he and his crew were shot down over the English channel and were rescued after 3 days of being stranded at sea. I've looked on ForceWarRecords.co.uk however I can't seem to find him. Unfortunately, I don't have any more info regarding his military career.
If anybody could help or give some pointers, that'd be great! :)
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Was his mother's maiden name Gurney ?
Scotlandspeople has a likely birth and death for a Robert Edwin Gilmour.
ev
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Depending on how much detail you are looking for, and it will cost you £30, but you could apply for his service records:
https://www.gov.uk/get-copy-military-service-records/apply-for-someone-elses-records
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Was his mother's maiden name Gurney ?
Scotlandspeople has a likely birth and death for a Robert Edwin Gilmour.
ev
Yes, I have these already, but they have no info about his military career. Thank you, anyway :)
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Depending on how much detail you are looking for, and it will cost you £30, but you could apply for his service records:
https://www.gov.uk/get-copy-military-service-records/apply-for-someone-elses-records
Thanks :)
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Just to reinforce what Ruskie has said. His service record, as with all WW2 records, despite what some sites say, is not on line anywhere. Once you have it, it will tell you his squadron(s) and from there you can find the squadron operations book .
MaxD
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I have found a Sgt R Gilmour who flew with 44 Squadron. He took off from Dunholme Lodge on 20th October 1943 in Lancaster EE184 (KM-B) on an Op to Leipzig and ditched sometime later, South East of Grimsby.
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The "Sgt. R. Gilmour" aboard Lancaster EE184 was the Wireless Operator, not the navigator.
His service number was 1369736, if that matches up with anything you have?
DTD
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You might want to try browsing through this collection of bomber command loss cards
http://www.lancasterbombers.net/lancasterbombers_v1_033.htm
A card was prepared for each bomber lost during a mission. The collection may not be complete.
The first operational mission involving Lancaster bombers was in March 1942. That narrows down the search somewhat. Furthermore, if the he and his fellow crew members all survived then that card will stand out as most crews were killed or, a smaller number, taken prisoner.
Justin
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Yes this Sgt Gilmour was a WOp rather than a Nav but I know these things can get distorted over the years so I thought it worth a mention.
Sgt Gilmour's Service Record would still be the best way to go to narrow it down.
I believe Bomber Loss Cards were only produced for aircraft that were lost outside of the UK - I'm not sure that an aircraft ditching in the channel would qualify if survivors were picked up?
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I stumbled across two cards for crews that had been picked up after ditching in the North Sea while returning from ops. I didn't find Gilmour's crew though.
Justin
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Oh ok Justin. I wasn't sure in the cases of aircraft that had ditched so thanks for confirming that Loss Cards were produced for them.
Clive