Right oh,
Gobbo, thanks for holding the fort. I am a complete dunce with medal ribbons and have had to be guided by my RAF list chums, especially as in a black and white photo it is almost impossible to discern whether we have here a DFC or an AFC.
The first candidate had an MC AFC and DFC and a Met posting. Perfect, except that family contact ruled that candidate out.
Work is underway on candidate number two who is a MC DFC and a Met posting has just been confirmed.
As you say, it ought not to be too difficult - and from a list of 52 possibles we are working on four.
The specialist archive approached has been the RAF Museum. Sorry to say, Susan and PaulaToo, contact with Innsworth and IWM will be non-runners.
At RAF Personnel Records it is a cold blooded next-of-kin-and-pay-your-money exercise. The IWM photo collection does have a card index (their on-line photo collection is an angel on a pin head) and they are too busy to respond to a general photo request like ours. A pity.
Piestains, after my private messages, I am intrigued to see the photo of William Ivins and his resemblance to "Mikhail Gorbachev" - and he is also standing in front of a brick wall. Aaaaaaaarg!.
Gobbo is spot on regarding the photo, we are sure is early 1920s and William would be too young to be in that photo. But an older brother could be food for thought.
And so to bed.
Dave
