Seeking information on F/Sgt Nicholl and Andrew Halcro

[wwrsimon]

If he does have a Service Number, it's not listed in Air 78.

He does feature in a passenger manifest on the Pacific Steamship Company ship 'Orduna', arrving from Talcahuano into Liverpool on March 2nd 1932:

Port of Embarkation: Valparaiso
Port at which passenger landed: Liverpool
Name: HALCROW Andrew Fraser
Address in the UK: 1 Carlton Place, Lerwick, Shetland
Occupation: W.T. Operator
Aged: 20
Country of Last Permanent Residence: Scotland

He's also on a family tree on ancestry.co.uk.
Son of Andrew Fraser Halcrow, b. Walls, Shetland Islands in 1877, and Joan Williamson, also born in Shetland in 1875. His father it seems, was in the Royal Navy - he's on the 1901 Census as being a gunner in the Royal Marine Artillery at Pembroke Divison 2 at Chatham. By 1911 he's married and living in Westfield Road, Eastney, Portsmouth, just round the corner from Eastney Barracks which was until 2017 the Royal Marines Museum. They had three children, all born in Portsmouth.

Regards

Simon

[Ian Brown]

Simon,

Thanks, that's great.

I've looked at the Imperial Service Medal and this was an award for civil servants for long service, so from this and the news cutting on the Saxa Vord website, it seems clear that he was an Air Ministry civilian from 1939 until 1976 and did not enlist in the Royal Air Force. This certainly explains why there is no record of a service number, but means it is unlikely I'll be able to get a definitive history of his career and thereby check the details of Leonard Chapman's account as mentioned previously.

Thanks nonetheless for your help, which gives me a good bit of detail on his service.

[paulmcmillan]

Andrew Fraser Halcrow
Spouse: Mary Pratt Scott
Father: Andrew Fraser Halcrow
Mother: Joan Williamson
Children: Eileen Agnes Joan
Birth: Jul 1911 Portsmouth, Hampshire, England
Death: 1 Feb 1993 Lerwick, Shetland, Scotland

[paulmcmillan]

Under Andrew F Halcrow he is down as Wireless operator on a number of transatlantic immigration papers in the late 1920's and through the 1930's including one in 1934 that shows he was in Merchant Navy for 5 years at that point and was 5 foot 9 inches tall and weighed 150 lbs MV Oakworth at Grays Harbour in Washington state, on Nov 10th 1934

[Ian Brown]

Paul,

Thanks, that's great information. Do you have these papers in a digital form and hence would it be possible to send them to me? If not, what website have you accessed them from?

[paulmcmillan]

Ancestry - let me see if I can get them - pm me an email address