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Count of personnel by Membership Source

There are six primary sources that between them provide foPPA's researched total of 200 PPA Establishment members (as opposed to the 49 PPA Attached so far accounted for, if not all identified):

  • Popski's PPA Card Index: 180 names.
  • Captain Jan Caneri's PPA Personnel Records: 15 more names not in the Card Index.
  • The PPA War Diary: 1 more name.
  • Popski's book (Private Army): 1 more name.
  • Captain Bob Yunnie's book (Warriors on Wheels/Fighting with PPA): 1 more name.
  • "Other": One of the others is mentioned as attending Popski's memorial service in a letter between two PPA veterans.

All sources shown therefore have varying degrees of overlap.

Membership Source PPA Est PPA Att All PPA Notes
PPA Card Index[1] 180 11 191 foPPA Archives, Popski Collection, now in IWM
PPA Personnel Records 142 10 152 Imperial War Museum, Jan Caneri Collection
PPA War Diary 114 3 117 The National Archives
PPA Disbandment Records[2] 82   82 Imperial War Museum, Jan Caneri Collection
PPA Association papers 72 2 74 foPPA Archives, Popski Collection, now in IWM
Ben Owen's book 68 5 73 foPPA Archives, Ben Owen Collection
Popski's book 58 9 67 foPPA Archives, Popski Collection
Bob Yunnie's book 52 7 59 foPPA Archives, Bob Yunnie Collection
John Willett's book 28 4 32 foPPA Archives, John Willett Collection
John Campbell's typescript 23 3 26 foPPA Archives, John Campbell Collection
PPA Field Returns[3] 6   6 The National Archives
Other[4] 3 31 34 foPPA Archives
Totals[5]        

Copyright © 2013 foPPA
19 Apr 2013

Further information
Notes: 
  1. ^ The PPA Card Index is the source of the (inaccurate) line "Altogether 191 all ranks have been on the rolls of P.P.A" in the PPA Historical Summary (The National Archives). 190 Cards are in the Card Index box in the foPPA Archives (Popski Collection) while the 191st (Captain Jan Caneri's) is in the Imperial War Museum (Jan Caneri Collection). This figure has been repeated in many publications, but the correct number is 249 (to date).
  2. ^ The total for War Establishment NA/229/1, plus two in excess of War Establishment.
  3. ^ Only Officers are named in Field Returns (Army Forms W.3008 and W.3009).
  4. ^ Mainly Glider Pilots, Signallers and Popski's Private Navy, all from non-PPA sources, many not yet named.
  5. ^ Each person may be counted in more than one source so no column totals are given as they would be misleading.