Hey guys, so I went a little digging into my family’s background since the time I spent not being outside due to COVID-19 has given me that liberty.
I recently found out that through my dad, my great-grandfather was an officer for the RAF as an Assyrian Levi at RAF Habbaniya. I’m trying to find out how can I find more information about him? Possibly records of service? I am a third year university student and I think it would be great if I had this information for my WWII history class next semester!
A side note, I am Assyrian myself, my dad is from Iraq but we live in Canada. I don’t know what hurdles that might put in front of me but if anyone has some information and would like to give me a hand, it would be more than appreciated!
Your two main options would be either the UK National Archives at Kew or the records department of the RAF Museum at Hendon. Both have very useful online resources for those who want to look up the military records of family members. While a lot of stuff has been digitised, there is still a lot of material that is available only in physical form at the archives themselves. However - and this is a big however - there are a lot of restrictions at the moment because of COVID which makes research that bit more challenging. I know from a friend who specialises in RAF history that they were interested in race and the 'colour bar' at their North African bases, so there might well be materials related to this and the hiring of indigenous workers.
Kew's only database and search system is very useful and should probably be your first port of call. You'll be able to see if any relevant materials are held, and how they are held. If they are physical only, then it would require you to either visit the archives (perhaps not possible at the moment!) or pay for a research to look at them for you.
Hope this helps.
Malcolm