Court Martial Impacts

**jonny** · 10th August 2021, 15:55

The LG does not carry records of CM, only mentioning any significant punishment for officers (only). The CM Register is available in hard copy at Kew and lists the accused's details (the usual N/R/N and their unit), date and place of trial, nature of the charges and the punishment if applicable.

**Resmoroh** · 10th August 2021, 16:41

IIRC the other place where the details (as in Jonny's post above) of CMs were published was in the PORs of the SROs of the Unit/Station of the Offender. But as these were ephemeral documents it is unlikely any have survived. Certainly, I would think, not enough for research purposes?
HTH
Peter Davies

**Don Clark** · 10th August 2021, 23:02

While Courts Martial are beyond my scope, Personnel Occurrence Reports are not quite, so for possible future ref, esp for RAAF men but also for tracking some RAF personnel in Aus.

As far as I understand it, in RAF records, all PORs were "weeded" long ago, redundant by retention of the individual, summary, Airman/Officer Record of Service forms: Ross McNeill may know more, or others.

However, for what it's worth, in National Archives of Australia the complete set of Personnel Occurrence Reports by RAAF Units does survive and under that title, as
Series A10605
comprising 4250 Items (listed)
(many Units compiling more than one volume of PORs over time).

From past experience, NAA underlying links quite quickly time out and Record Search can be a bit tricky to navigate. Search on
Personnel Occurrence Report
should work as a starter, with unit name if known.
Or try Advanced search, pick the Series Number field, enter A10605 and click Search...(note: omitting the leading A of A10605 is fatal!)
The Series summary page appears - 5 rows down is the highlighted Items in this series count, 4250: click on that & knock yourselves out scrolling...

So for example, RAF men arr in Australia in March 1942 would be recorded in PORs by whichever RAAF Unit in Aus received them:
Of the few 211 Squadron survivors of Sumatra and Java who were evac'd to Western Australia/Fremantle aboard Tung Song, a search of
5 Embarkation Depot
found them, RAF and RAAF, by name rank and service no, as arrivals (& departures iirc).

For general illustration of POR style, content: Example, Vol I and Example, Vol II inc minor crimes
I was quite surprised on checking back just now to find such a high proportion of the RAAF POR files now digitised.

The NAA POR resource, while unlikely to be of use for Courts Martial of RAF men (unless charged in Aus!) may nevertheless be of use from time to time for RAF men arr in Aus - and of course for RAAF men in RAAF units.

**paulmcmillan** · 28th August 2021, 14:09

I beginning to see how system works now:

28237 Leslie Eric Bradley STONHILL F/Lt 25.08.47 exon of service for 5 years
Death
29 Mar 1969 England
The undermentioned are granted short
service commissions as Pilot Officers on probation with effect from and with seniority
of 27th Dec. 1929:—
Leslie Eric Bradley STONHILL.
-> Pilot Officer on probation Leslie Eric Bradley STONHILL takes rank and precedence as if his appointment as Pilot Officer bore date 27th June 1930, - 6 months Loss of Senority do doubt as a result of a GCM -

**paulmcmillan** · 28th August 2021, 14:19

Also this one

No GCM just not good enough to be an officer ….

The short service commission of Acting Pilot Officer on probation Richard Welsford AiTKEN- QuACK is terminated on cessation of duty, 11th July 1936

As an Acting P/O they decided to terminate his Commission i suspect this really wa a “probationary” period to see if he was officer material he was not see below

“ Quack, aged 23, a native of Harrogate, was in the R.A.F. for a time, but his commission was terminated as he was considered unlikely to become a suitable officer. He absconded with money after taking up work in London and his father met the deficiency.

Published: Saturday 24 July 1937
Newspaper: Birmingham Daily Gazette
County: Warwickshire, England

He interesting character Google him

**paulmcmillan** · 28th August 2021, 14:26

The news report was to do with case of smuggling he also had a short pre war career as Army Officer - the later stuff is where it gets really intersting