Missing OBE's
 

Hi Guys.
I am urgently in need of an OBE to a Maj Poland from the SAAF.
He is missing from all the known lists as mentioned before ie.
We already had the London Gazette piece about the OBE (the London Gazette archives are online) but it does not include the citation itself.

It was also not included in the Gazette announcements. We found most of the DFC citations in the Air Ministry Bulletins which were on microfiche at the Royal Air Force Museum in Hendon and others by going through the files of the National Archives at Kew. We subsequently even phoned (from Gillitts) the Chancellory at Buckingham Palace in pursuit of a missing MBE citation. No Help.
It os also not in our own archives in South Africa.
Does anybody know of another scource were we can look.??
Thanks in advance
Stefaan Bouwer

Re: Missing OBE's
 

Stefaan,
There is almost certainly something at TNA Kew, even if it doesn't appear in an index under the recepiants name. Can I ask how did you 'go through' the files at TNA Kew? Was it via the online catalogue or an oldfashioned manual search? There are resources available to personal visitors that are not obvious and are sometimes labour intensive, but produce results.

Bruce Dennis

Re: Missing OBE's
 

Hi Dennis.
The daughter of the co-author of our book spent a few days at Kew to look for it.
She also arranged with the staff there that she was coming so that they could help with the search due to her time constaints.
She went there from S Africa, so time was a premium.
Stefaan

Re: Missing OBE's
 

Stefaan,
If you will give me any dates, operation names or units involved in the action or event that lead to the award I will see what I can find. There are some methods that have worked for me but are not usually employed by the staff researchers.

To explain, the fact that the award was granted guarantees that there is a reference somewhere at Kew. The problem is to find it. The most likely route, if the recipient does not have an entry under their name in the index(es), is to look at the event if this is known. This often gives a variety of other names and, in the system at Kew, allows cross referencing to your original subject.

Secondly, look at the H&A (Honours and Awards) recommendations from the C.O. of the group or unit where your subject was serving. This is quite effective but it is vital to know the date of the award to save time.

I am there from time to time and am happy to do a little digging. There are also other routes open to the next of kin of a subject.

Bruce Dennis

Re: Missing OBE's
 

The OBE was gazetted 1 January 1946 so the citation will most likely be found at Kew in AIR 2 documents dealing with the New Year 1946 Honours List. Search their catalogue, limiting the document field to AIR 2, the time field to 1945 to 1947 and using key words "Honours" and "New" and "Year" or "Years".