Rank used after the war?

[Muskoka]

If a non-career soldier or aviator attained the rank of Captain or Major during the war, did he use it when he returned to civilian life? Did this differ between Canadians and the British?

[John_Hartley]

One of my dad's drinking pals in later life was another WW2-vintage soldier. He'd been commissioned from the ranks and rose to the rank of Major and, for the rest of life, insisted on being called it. Except, of course, when he preferred the rank of RSM, which got him a good job with the Corps of Commisionaires.

It used to irritate the hell out of the Pay Corps' ex-Private Hartley.

John

[dycer]

I worked with a WW2 and post-War T.A. retired Major.

As courtesy he was always,addressed,to his face as Major,probably because of his Whisky drinking prowess.

It was in the Civil Service,so I doubt he used the Rank on official correspondence.

George

[Muskoka]

My British grandfather-in-law, an architect by profession, was promoted to Captain before even leaving England for the Front. Later, he was "gazetted Major (temporary)" and ended the war with that rank. I don't think he ever used it later, but because he was "temporary" for 12 months or so, does that mean he couldn't have been "Major" post-war anyway?

[Moonraker]

Let me be the first to think (or at least post my thought) of Captain W E Johns, the creator of Biggles.

But to muddy the waters: he had attained only the rank of lieutenant - and he stayed on after the Armistice and unwittingly recruited Lawrence of Arabia in to the RAF.

see here

Moonraker

[phil@basildon]

Let me be the first to think (or at least post my thought) of Captain W E Johns, the creator of Biggles.

But to muddy the waters: he had attained only the rank of lieutenant - and he stayed on after the Armistice and unwittingly recruited Lawrence of Arabia in to the RAF.

see here

Moonraker

King's (or Queen's) regulations allow an officer of the rank of Captain or above to use the rank title after they have returned to civvy street. I assume the same applies to Naval and Air Force officers of equivalent rank.

[Ian Riley]

I think Harold Macmillan (and plenty of others) used their WW1 military rank when standing for Parliament between the wars (see Wind of Change - first volume of his memoirs). I knew a nearly 90 year old WW1 Captain (still running his travel agency in Liverpool in the late seventies) who was known to all of his generation as Captain Namedeleted.

Ian

[Terry_Reeves]

Captain Terence O'Neill, Prime Minister of Northern Ireland from 1963 to 1969 is another example. He served with the Irish Guards in WW2. Incidentally, his father Captain Arthur O'Neill was killed in November 1914 whilst serving with A Squadron, 2nd Life Guards and was the first sitting MP to be killed in the war. The family owned Shane's Castle County Antrim, just a stone's throw from Massereene Barracks which has been in the news recently.

TR

[JPAE]

My father was with the Civil Service in the 50's and early 60's and ran the catering for the Police training centre at Sandgate. His staff were predominantly female and if I was there they would always say "The Major" and never refer to him as "Your dad". Like John's Dad's drinking pal, my dad started in the ranks and must have considered the rank of Major as a title for life. Family members were spared this formality, but any application form we children filled in had to put Major L R Elliott as father, or else!

A connected question. What exactly is a brevet rank?

Phil.

[per ardua per mare per terram]

The regulations permitted the use of ranks in civvie life (LG entries oftain mention Captain Bloggs is permitted to retain the rank). Whether people then used it depended upon their personality. Think of a certain Captain Mainwairing! Post war fact and fiction abounds with men using their war time ranks.

[per ardua per mare per terram]

A connected question. What exactly is a brevet rank?

"An official document granting certain privileges from a sovereign or government; spec. in the Army, a document conferring nominal rank on an officer, but giving no right to extra pay. " Oxford English Dictionary online. It was a more established method of acting rank.

[Andrew Upton]

If a non-career soldier or aviator attained the rank of Captain or Major during the war, did he use it when he returned to civilian life? Did this differ between Canadians and the British?

Roald Dahl in his autobiography "Boy" recorded a teacher at his school I think who used the title Captain he'd acquired during the war, but Dahl wrote it in a negative way, and said it was generally considered bad form to continue using a rank of less than Major (and that being hardly any better).

[dycer]

My Father,joined the Police Force,in 1919,as a Constable.

He retired,in 1955,from the Police ,with the Rank of Chief Inspector.

Post 1955, he was happy to be called,Charlie, by his new workmates.

When,I was growing up, and he had retired from work, to everyone, who knew him, he was Mr, be it Church,Parish Council or even in a Bowls Competition.

But I just knew him,as Dad.

George

[squirrel]

My Dentist when I was very young was a WW1 RAMC Lt Colonel.

[keithfazzani]

We had several Majors teaching at my school in the 60's, ranks no doubt achieved in WW2. We never found this unusual and we would sometimes come across these titles in other walks of life back then. I was told somewhere that it was wrong to use a rank under that of Major, not sure if this was a rule or some form of snobbishness.

[George Armstrong Custer]

The most famous and sustained post-Army use of a non-field commissioned rank, of course, was probably Captain B. H. Liddell Hart.

[Ian Riley]

Probably just to remind the Establishment that they hadn't made him 'Sir Basil'. I am not sure that I remember the 'Captain' being in use thereafter.

Ian

[phil@basildon]

The regulations permitted the use of ranks in civvie life (LG entries oftain mention Captain Bloggs is permitted to retain the rank). Whether people then used it depended upon their personality. Think of a certain Captain Mainwairing! Post war fact and fiction abounds with men using their war time ranks.

I understand that Mainwaring appointed himself to that rank! and was more than a little bit miffed when sergeant Wilson turned up for a "do" wearing his own WW1 Major's uniform.

[Andrew Upton]

I understand that Mainwaring appointed himself to that rank! and was more than a little bit miffed when sergeant Wilson turned up for a "do" wearing his own WW1 Major's uniform.

Since I've just been rereading the complete series scripts, on the latter point in the last episode "Never Too Old", Wilson actually turns up in a Great War Captains uniform, putting him on an equal par to Mainwaring.

On the former, I always thought Mainwairing was a bit hard done by - in the first episode alone "The Man and the Hour" we learn he'd been a commisioned Officer in France in 1919, he'd pre-empted the formation of the LDV in a letter he'd sent to GHQ weeks earlier asking for instructions in case of invasion, and that they needed to "appoint a properly appointed Commander. Now that's me, all right?". It always seems to me he'd already put all the groundwork in place, so was unfairly challenged in "Room at the Bottom" when he was first demoted to Lieutenant, then Private, before finally having his rank of Captain confirmed by GHQ, making him in second in command of the company formed out of the three platoons regularly featured.