Hi, my great uncle James William Eckersall was born in Hyde, Cheshire in 1921, and joined the RAF on the 9th of January 1942. He’d previously been working as a ‘Back Tenter’ in a cotton mill.
I just got his record today, and see that he was a W/op (Wireless Operator), which fits in with a photograph he sent home of a Boxing Day 1945 football game, where he states he played for ‘Signals’ against ‘Army’.
Further than that though I’m struggling to work out what units he was with, where he was and when.
I’ve attached pictures of the record, plus the two photographs he sent home. Any help would be much appreciated.
I’m particularly interested as to why he seems to have attended an Air Gunnery School, but never became a Air Gunner. It looks like on the front of his record it says, dated 5.1.42, which is 4 days prior to his enlistment, ‘Not rec. for training as Air Crew’. Why would that be? He was his mother’s only son, and had a younger unmarried sister, and a deaf and mute grandfather all living in 4 rooms, plus his father had abandoned the family in early childhood, so I suppose he was an important support to the family and would be a big loss to them if he were to die. I didn’t think they’d take that into account though? But if he were immediately not recommended for training as Air Crew, why did he go to an Air Gunnery School?
Hope folks can shed some light on this! Many thanks.
