8th Air Formation Signals

 8th Air Formation Signals was formed as 1 Coy, 'F' AFS, at Ramleh (Palestine) on July 14th, 1942, and tasked to provide landline and dispatch rider communications for 205 Group, RAF. 205 Group was the 'Bomber Command' of the Middle East with airfields from St Jean (north of Haifa) to the Canal Zone and into Cyrenaica. It was re-designated 8 AFS in August 1942. It was practice for Wellington bombers based in the Canal Zone to fly to Advance Landing Grounds (ALGs) in Cyrenaica where they refuelled before flying to their final destinations. 8 AFS therefore had an unusually large parish and it is likely that Charles Lawrence served on some of these ALGs a considerable distance from unit or company HQ.

In March 1944 8 AFS moved to Italy and continued to provide communications for the RAF in Italy and Austria until it disbanded at some time after December 1946.