RFC Death Insurance???

mdiam · 21 March 2005, 10:31 AM

This is for a writing project that I am working on (fiction).

Does anybody here know if the RFC had anything like an insurance policy for their officers if they died in combat that would go to the next of kin?

If so, how much?

I know this sounds a little morbid, but in a story the little details can count for a whole lot.

Thank you very much for your help!!

Mike

MattyBoy · 21 March 2005, 11:15 AM

Hi Mike,

This from a great book by Griffith Brewer entitled 'Fifty Years Of Flying'

The Aero Club Benevolent Fund 1914-1933
'It will always be to the credit of the Royal Aero Club that so far back as February 1914 it established an Aviation Benevolent Fund, the object being to relieve aviators, their wives, widows, and dependents when in necessitious circumstances. No one at that early date in the beginning of 1914 could suppose that this Aero Club Benevolent Fund would be the forerunner of the great RAF Benevolent Fund which later took over the obligations the Aero Club had undertaken at the beginning of the first world war.

At the time the Benevolent Fund went through a critical struggle for existence. The first world war started in August 1914 and Mr. Andre Michelin offered 1,000 GBP to the Club to found a fund to make provision for officers and men of the Flying Services who were permanently incapacitated and for the families of such as were killed. The Aero Club Committee was sadly depleted because so many had joined the RFC and the RNAS, so on my return from America after the war had started I found myself with only two or three other members of the Committee who were able to give any attention to the Benevolent Fund and to its expansion under the gift of Andre Michelin.'

More to follow....

MattyBoy · 21 March 2005, 11:39 AM

Part 2....

'I was fired by Mr. Michelin's generous offer and at once set about seeing if something big could be made of it. Obviously the Michelin 1,000 could be added to the Benevolent Fund already founded and I obtained promises of support from Cockburn, Ogilvie and O'Gorman, who agreed that we should not only contribute ourselves, but we should press the Committee to subscribe 1,000 of the Club's funds.
Stevenson was acting as secretary during the absence in the RNAS of Harold Perrin. We worked hard to make the fund a success. I must have been a great anxiety to Stevenson, because quite early in our campaign I suggested that the Club should subscribe 1,000 to supplement the Michelin 1,000. The Committee thinking naturally of the Club interests, were loath to agree to the 4,000 which the Club had in liquid assets at the moment being reduced by subscribing 1,000 to the fund.
With the support of Alec Ogilvie, Major Fulton, E. E. Cockburn (I think his initials should be G.B.), Captain Bagnall-Wild and Mervyn O'Gorman, we sent in a requisition for a special meeting of the Club membership to decide whether or not the Club should subscribe 1,000. As an additional lever, promises were obtained of 1,000 from Frank McClean, 250 from Alec Ogilvie, and 100 from myself as additional subscriptions contingent on the Club's voting 1,000.'

MattyBoy · 22 March 2005, 12:25 PM

Part 3:-

'A crowded meeting of the members was held at the Club Room at 166 Picadilly and I moved my resolution. The treasurer of the Club, strongly supported by the two other members of the Committee, resisted on the ground that the Club could not afford to contribute.
The generous feelings of the members present at this special meeting resulted in a unanimous vote that the Club should contribute the 1,000, and thus with the contingent 1,350 and Michelin's 1,000, it was able by transferring the original Benevolent Fund of 125 GBP to start off with the sum of 3,475. I then wrote a number of letters to aircraft constructors, suggesting that they should lead the way to further subscriptions by each contributing 1,000. T.O.M. Sopwith subscribed 1,000 and other air enthusiasts such as Norman Neill, Paris Singer and (Adam) Mortimer-Singer each contributed 100. James Radley and Captain Oswald Watt contributed 25 and 20 GBP respectively; this was followed by the Editor of Flight with 10 guineas. These with various lesser subscriptions brought the total on the 22nd January 1915 up to 4,971 GBP.

MattyBoy · 22 March 2005, 03:19 PM

Last part...

Later in 1915 I had to leave Stevenson to run the fund alone, because all my time was taken up in my work at Roehampton lecturing and carrying out experiments in ripping kite balloons in the air at Roehampton RNAS as Honorary Adviser to the Airship and Kite Balloon Services. The Year Books of the Aero Club show that the subscriptions to the Benevolent Fund totalled 10,828 up to 31st August 1916 and that they amounted to 15,066 by 17th June 1919. In the Year Book published in 1926 the Flying Services Fund was still advertised but the amount received did not appear. In June 1933 I had occasion to send a subscription to the fund and I was told that the fund had been closed and the balance had been paid over to the Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund which had been founded in 1919.
The Royal Aero Club Committee had found that two funds for the same purpose were redundant and that the Royal Air Force Fund which had so greatly eclipsed it was left to look after the welfare of the victims of Service flying. The retirement in favour of the Royal Air Force Fund has proved to be a wise one, because the Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund has now reached the sum of more than 2,000,000 GBP. ***
But for the initiative of Andre Michelin, supported in those early days by the Royal Aero Club, this great fund for the flying personnel, to whom we owe so much, might have been much longer delayed and our debt to the flying men might not have been recognised so substantially.'

*** This book was written in 1946.
All prices are in GBP, I don't know how to add the pound sign on my keyboard.

Sorry but I don't know how entitlement to each person was determined, but was probably combined between rank and period of service.

Rgds
Matt.

mdiam · 30 March 2005, 02:57 PM

Thank You!!! MattyBoy!
Your information is very helpful. Just knowing there was such a thing is very useful to me right now. I admit to a certain amount of curiosity as to what the amounts were for rank and time in grade, but perhaps I will stumble across this info in my future research.
THANK YOU again Matt!!!
Mike

MattyBoy · 1 April 2005, 04:13 AM

Hi, Mike,

Not a problem.
There is also a book I have called (I think) Royal Naval Air Service 1908-1918 by Captain Roskill.

This book also has information on the RFC before the RNAS was formed.
I'm confident that I've seen mention of pay entitlement to officers and other ranks in this book - maybe not anything on death insurance entitlement, but I'll have a look all the same and let you know.
If you find your answer, be sure to let me know!

Regards...