MANUAL OF ARMY EMPLOYMENT (MAE)

[green_acorn]

Ladies and gents,

I was wondering if anyone knew if what I knew as a MAE, during my Australian Army service, existed for the British Army (and therefore the AIF, CEF, NZEF etc) during WW1. During my service the book was a compilation of the "trade, functions, conditions, standards, training and promotion requirements" for every job (Employment Category) in the Army for Warrant Officers, Senior NCO and Other Ranks. I have come across some job descriptions which are rather interesting and would like to know if an MAE exists and where one may be found.

Kindest,

Hendo

[Ron Clifton]

Hello Hendo

In WW1, there wasn't a single such manual. The various manuals and regulations for each arm of service contained some indications, but usually in fairly general terms e.g. "have passed the relevant trade test."

There was of course a smaller range of technical employments at this period, and many of these could be assessed using largely subjective assessments, e.g. "Competent shoer of horses."

Ron

[green_acorn]

Ron,

Thank you, I imagine that many of the trades relied on the various civilian standards.

I am also guessing that the RE(Sigs)/RSigs probably maintained standardised trade tests for morse operators. Are there any Rsigs friends around who could help me with "operator" standards and functional descriptions?

Cheers,

Chris H

[Ron Clifton]

Hello again Chris

Try to find a copy of "The Signal Service (France)" by Major R E Priestley. It has much useful information on this and all signals topics, and is very readable too. It was published in about 1921 jointly by the RE Institution and the newly-formed Signals Institution, so it may be a bit hard to find a copy near you, but try the Australian National Memorial or one of your local university libraries.

It does not give details of trade tests but it does list, in one of its Appendices, the breakdown by trades of each type of signals unit. The difference between operators "A" and "B" is explained somewhere in the main text!

Ron

[Pete1052]

There is a link to an online version of Major Priestley's book on the signal service in the Document Repository section.

Edit: http://www.archive.org/details/signalserviceine00prie

[green_acorn]

Ron and Peter,

Thank you both for your help, I found the description I was after for the "Interpreter Operator" and so much more! Very much appreciated,

Cheers,

Chris

[Ron Clifton]

Pete

Thanks for the link. I have relatively easy access to a copy at the University Library but it is useful to know that it is online too, as I often recommend Pals to read it if they can.

I was interested to see, on the link, that the actual printers were Mackays of Chatham - a firm which still exiosts today.

Ron