[DaveCox]

Hi Carmen,

Glad you've finally got all the 'gumph' that you've been waiting for - and I know what you're going through in trying to understand all the dates and other stuff that they put into these official records.

We tried to trace Chrissie's fathers service, and came up with some unknown facts :-
He falsified his birth certificate to join the Royal Artillery in 1916 - real age 14, was found out and sent to the Army school until he reached 16 - served post WW1.
In 1938 he changed his birth certificate again and joined the RAF - served as a photographer through all the actions in the desert until he came back to the UK in 1942 !... as a genealogist you can imagine the headaches that this caused!! We do still have some glass slides with the WD arrow in the corner with subjects such as Arab dhows on the Nile etc. & a box of water-colour paints with a map of North Africa showing all the places that he visited - Tobruk, Alexandria, LG103, El Adem - all names which feature in any history of the conflict in that theatre.

The medals
1939-45 Star
France & Germany Star >918 21/1/50
Defence Medal

were certainly 'standard' issue to any British or Commonwealth servicemen that served in that theatre of war, as these were among the 5 medals that Chrissie's dad had, the others being the Air Efficiency Award for 10 years reserve service ( he continued to serve in the reserve until the mid-1950s) and the Africa Star with rosette to show that he was there between 1939 & 1942.

Good luck in deciphering Eddie's records, I can understand how important it is to you.
Keep away from the fires - I thought of you when I saw the pics of burning BC on my tv!!!!