Commissioning from the ranks

[LtColSki USMC0302]

Hello,

I was wondering if anyone could enlighten me on the process for commissioning a soldier from the ranks? Was the man returned to the UK or some other area for some type of officer training? I have noticed while looking at MICs that it appears the man was usually transferd to another unit. Was that a hard and fast rule? Any input appreciated as well as any guidance on good places, books, etc to read about this topic. Thanks very much.

~Dan

[Liz in Eastbourne]

Have you seen the recent thread Probationer commissions?

There are links to a couple of other threads on related topics.

Liz

[LtColSki USMC0302]

Have you seen the recent thread Probationer commissions?

There are links to a couple of other threads on related topics.

Liz

I had not. I missed them in my initial search of the forum. Thanks very much Liz.

Cheers,

~Dan

[sotonmate]

Dan

From the vast majority of service files I have seen which show a soldier being promoted to Officer level they seemed to be discharged from their unit to undertake their training in the UK. I am sure you will find various opinions on this,but that is how I have found it.

One exception which is already entering my mind as I type is that of one of the Honourable Artillery Companies (surprisingly from it's title an infantry unit)which I came across as I was researching a Silver War Badge that I have decided to care for. It was based in France but it was training Officers from it's ranks wholesale and they were then posted to other units on completion of their training.

Sotonmate

[Old Tom]

I suggest that commissioning from the ranks is quite a broad term including at least three categories - or perhaps circumstances is better. In both peace and war senior soldiers having reached warrant officer status could be commissioned as quartermasters. Again in peace and war soldiers of any rank showing potential could be selected for training as officers. Also, I suggest, in war during operations, a soldier having demonstrated the ability to act as an officer could be granted a commission; these, at one time, were called battlefield commissions. I am unable to cite the rules and procedures, some of which have been addressed in the other thread referred to above.

Old Tom

[Old Tom]

Sotonmate was posting while my one finger typing was slowly working. The HAC was, of course, a territorial unit, recruiting mainly from the ranks of the well educated in and around the city of London. They would be a valuable source of officers.

Old Tom

[Alan Tucker]

From my work on the Warwicks...

An interesting phenomenon during this period (winter 1916/1917) is the desire or need to promote experienced soldiers into the officer class . For example on December 23 1916 the Brigadier-General who commanded 182 Brigade interviewed six other ranks recommended by the CO of the 2/8th Battalion. The war diary of the same battalion identified three NCOs and three private soldiers who were sent back to England to train for a commission between February and April 1917. The same occurred in the 1/7 Battalion in early February 1917 when company commanders announced that NCOs and men interested in the idea of applying for a commission should parade at Battalion HQ for interview by the CO. Corporal Henry Ogle applied and gained the approval of Colonel Knox. He was soon on his way to England. It is not clear, however, how widespread this practice was and our only regimental examples in this period are Territorial.

[David_Underdown]

I have a signaller in a New Army division who was commissioned in September 1917, having been put forward in July. He doesn't appear to have left the unit at all, and carried on with them even after he was commissioned. He had previously been Mentioned in Despatches, awarded the DCM an MM, and after being commissioned would also receive the MC

In the same division a serjeant in an infantry battalion who had qualified as a machine gunner was sent back to the UK before being commissioned in the MGC.

[Muerrisch]

Pre-war, and first few weeks.QM and Riding Master commissions were formally "non-combatant" meaning not entitled to command bodies of troops in action. They carried Honoray rank, starting at lt, and not full Mess membership. They were granted to WOs and occasionally Staff Sgts 1st class.

Combatant commissions could be sought by: full corporals and above under 26 years, unmarried, and with a 1st Class cert of Army Education. Such commissions were regular, permanent, and always started at 2Lt.

Late 1914.Combatant regular commissions awarded in the field to [at least] C-Sgts and above within their own regiment to top up officer numbers in depleted battalions, and notwithstanding the pre-war limitations.

The later period I will leave to others but it was the practice to appoint newly commissioned officers to a new battalion if not a new regiment but this was not universally applied. {this is much as my new wife was not allowed to serve under the same roof as me, and was a good principal]

The thing to bear in mind is that a regular soldier usually/ often?? received a regular commission which caused much heartache after the war: elderly lieutenants and captains on the Army List about 10 years out of synch.

[LtColSki USMC0302]

Thanks very much for the replies and the information. Between these answers and the information in the threads Liz pointed me to, I have a much better understanding of the topic.

My interest stems from an MIC I was recently perusing. The man in question was listed as a Sgt in the Welch Regiment and was subsequently commissioned a 2LT in 1917 and is then noted as being in the Royal Welsh Fusiliers.

He is noted as having entered the theater of war in Salonika in August 1916. Assuming he went to Salonika with a battalion, I'm thinking he was in the 23rd Pioneer Bn. I was trying to sort out whether he remained in Salonkia and was transfered to the 11th RWF upon commissioning or returned to England and went to some other RWF Bn.

Regardless, thanks again for the responses. I appreciate the assistance.

Cheers,

~Dan

[bushfighter]

I believe that those units far away from the UK had to improvise as they and their relevant HQs saw fit.

The 2nd Bn The Loyal North Lancashire Regiment in British East Africa (now Kenya) received a group of commissioned senior ranks who had been trawled from the few British Army regular battalions remaining in India.

These lads do not appear to have received formal training (which they did not need anyway to be platoon commanders) nor had they been issued with or purchased their full kit requirements. This upset their new Commanding Officer who had not been warned of their posting to his unit.

At the time the CO had just arranged with the Governor of the Protectorate (the local military commander) the posting-in of several "suitable gentlemen" who mostly were troopers in an East African mounted unit.

Again these suitable gentlemen arrived without specific officer-training (and perhaps also without their full complement of officers' kit!).

Most of these new infantry officers from both sources performed adequately or better, and those that did not would I am sure have been quickly moved to a line of communication or rear echelon post.

One incident that disturbs myself, having had to live amongst pretentious pseudo-military types at various times in my life, was that the Bn RSM was commissioned and retained in the unit. This was a good move and he more than proved his worth as a platoon commander.

However he was later killed in action, but a post-war memorial plaque naming the Bn officers who died during the war does not list him - he was not a pukka Regular Officer!

Harry

[Muerrisch]

I believe that those units far away from the UK had to improvise as they and their relevant HQs saw fit.

The 2nd Bn The Loyal North Lancashire Regiment in British East Africa (now Kenya) received a group of commissioned senior ranks who had been trawled from the few British Army regular battalions remaining in India.

These lads do not appear to have received formal training (which they did not need anyway to be platoon commanders) nor had they been issued with or purchased their full kit requirements. This upset their new Commanding Officer who had not been warned of their posting to his unit.

At the time the CO had just arranged with the Governor of the Protectorate (the local military commander) the posting-in of several "suitable gentlemen" who mostly were troopers in an East African mounted unit.

Again these suitable gentlemen arrived without specific officer-training (and perhaps also without their full complement of officers' kit!).

Most of these new infantry officers from both sources performed adequately or better, and those that did not would I am sure have been quickly moved to a line of communication or rear echelon post.

One incident that disturbs myself, having had to live amongst pretentious pseudo-military types at various times in my life, was that the Bn RSM was commissioned and retained in the unit. This was a good move and he more than proved his worth as a platoon commander.

However he was later killed in action, but a post-war memorial plaque naming the Bn officers who died during the war does not list him - he was not a pukka Regular Officer!

Harry

My understanding of the rules is that a regular soldier commissioned from the ranks perforce had a regular commission. Certainly the case for RWF.

[rflory]

I can only speak in terms of the Royal Artillery where early in the war most regular other ranks were almost always given regular commissions but during the last two years of the war many were given commissions in the Special Reserve instead of obtaining regular commissions. Many of the so-called battlefield commissions were a reward "for service in the field" and these are noted as such in the London Gazette.

Other sources of commissions for other ranks were:

1. Officer Cadet Schools

2. The Honourable Artillery Company (both infantry and artillery)

3. The Inns of Court OTC

4. The Artists Rifles

Dick Flory