Page 1.
Selected by Headquarters South East Asia Air Command for Air Gunner training 27/9/43
WSI stands for War Service Increment - a gratuity added to his pay
Under time Forfeited the reason is various periods of absence (without leave) for which he lost pay and days towards good conduct awards. The loss of pay is noted at the foot of the column.
His ranks were:
AC2 - Aircraftman class 2
AC1 - Aircraftman Class 1
T LAC - Temporary Lance Corporal see comment from rafcommands below
T Cpl - Temporary Corporal
T Sgt - Temporary Sergeant
T F Sgt - Temporary Flight Sergeant
Temporary rank was used for servicemen who had only joined up for the duration of the war and were therefore held against a War establishment for manning and pay purposes. The pay, duties and responsibilities etc were the same as for regular career servicemen.
Page 2.
3 RC Padgate was the Recruit Centre at Padgate in Warrington. HH means Home posting, ie not overseas
58 MU - Maintenance Unit. 58 MU was based at RAF Newark and was a depot where aircraft were stored, serviced and upgraded or cannibalised depending on their serviceability. He was a radio mechanic at the time.
He then moved to Iraq en route to India
The remainder of the entries below relate to his various admissions and discharges from hospital. BMH stands for British Military Hospital (Calcutta) from where he was transferred to the British General Hospital Poona. Later he was admitted to IG Hospital - I don't know where that was, and the remainder of the entries at the foot of that page are too unclear to read.
The column headed mustering provides details of his trades. Initially he was an equipment assistant, then became a radio mechanic before becoming an W/T Air gunner, that is to say a radio operator and air gunner - which meant he was part of the aircrew. The next section to the right of 'mustering' gives the dates of his various promotions and his proficiency gradings, sat meaning satisfactory.
Page 4
56 PTC is Personnel Transit Centre [in the Far East]
Embarked for UK
9 PDC Personnel Dispatch Centre
ACAC ?
61 MU Maintenance Unit - I think this must be 61 and not 161 as 161 MU was in Egypt and by this stage he was definitely back in the UK. 61 MU was at RAF Cranage in Cheshire and was another equipment storage depot.
100 PDC Personnel Dispatch Centre - the place where he was processed for demobilisation "release"
