In February 1918 my Great Uncle Dudley Disney Kenny reached the age of 18 and was old enough to serve his country.

He applied to join the Royal Naval Air Service, was accepted and expected to start his training as a Commissioned Pilot.

Then the RNAS was merged with the RFC to create the RAF and Dudley Disney Kenny found himself one of the very first to join this grand organisation. But not as an officer as he hoped, but as a Seargent.

Dudely wrote regularly to his mother, Georgiana Kenny, she kept everything and I have spent months scanning and transcribing this mass of papers that has remained stashed away for the last 100 years..

Georgiana was the sister of Edgar Norton Disney, the last but one of a direct male line from Lambert D'Isigny (a 1066 immigrant). Dudley's sister was Marjorie, my Grandmother.

Understanding Dudley's training schedule and what happened when has been a challenge as dates were limited to the day, sometimes as detailed as Friday Evening. A couple of envelopes have helped with the date within the franking, Also official documents have the full dates.

Dudley's training seems to have been following the approximate schedule:

April: Joined and went to Hastings:

May to June: Basic training at Oxford:

July to September: Armaments training at Uxbridge:

October to early 1919: Flight training at Lake Down:

Boscombe Down pending release from service.

I have listed the official letters here

Dudley went on to medical training and I believe specialised in Dental work. He died May10th 1936. A far too young age.

His sister Marjorie survived him and died at the grand age of 86 in 1976 .