Training

Hello to all,
Wonder if anyone may be kind enough to assist with a query.
I have an army infantry officer who served at the front from May 1916 until about March 1917 when he transfered to the RFC. He ended up as an observer with 25 Sqn joining the Sqn on 24 March 1917. My query is where would he have been sent to for any training and how long would this training have taken?. I do not belive that one day he is in the trenches as an infantry officer and the next he is flying as an observer in 25 Sqn RFC.
For interest this officer is 2 Lt Henry Scotson Richards who was the observer in an FE 2d and on 3 April took off in aircraft (serial number A6371) piloted by Lt L Dodson with a second aircraft (serial number A6382) Lt DP Macdonald and 2 Lt J I O`Beirne. The two aircraft were attacked and shot down by three Albatros DIII from Jasta 11. Richards later died of wounds, Dodson survied and was taken POW.

Best Regards.
Peter

A bit earlier in the war, your comment about going directly from the trenches to squadron duty would have been quite accurate. Observers didn't get much in the way of training early in the war, since their primary role was defending the aircraft. (Photos and reconnaissance shoots, at least in the BE-2, were performed by the pilot.)

Even as late as spring 1917 it's entirely possible that your man went directly from his original unit to a squadron. Remember that the RFC was a branch of the Army, so a transfer was actually a secondment from one unit to another and could be performed very quickly.

I'm writing from memory here, but I suspect that observer training didn't begin in earnest until the Smith-Barry system was introduced in mid-1917.