Rank inflation in Ireland over real rank

[corisande]

A lot of the background I have been reading on the period covered by the British Army in Ireland seems to have them all being referred to by a rank higher than they actually were. The newspaper reports of the Bloody Sunday murders, the reports on the Auxiliaries, IRA internal memos, and so on.

This is more than courtesy titles, and it is not temporary ranks.

Can anyone offer an explanation. There seems to be nobody referred to as less than a Captain and often a Major.

[Terry_Reeves]

corisande

This is a guess, but they might acting ranks, which would put them on a temporary higher pay scale to reward them for whatever duties they were engaged in.

TR

[corisande]

No its not acting ranks - I have been through the LG in many cases to conform what they actually were, its weird that so many cases of an extra promotion are added.!

The temp higher pay scale is covered by the "special appointments" in LG with the "HH" or "II" grades (or whatever grade)