Difference between Army Council Instructions and Army Orders?

[Justinth]

Dear All

A few times on this forum I have seen reference to both Army Council Instructions (before January 1916 War Office Instructions) and Army Orders.

I have looked at ACIs on a couple of occasions (where they were mentioned on service files - for example helping understand the transfer of a man to the machine gun corp - it showed that the MGC in 1917 had its pick of men from training battalions) and understand they must have been issued by the Army Council.

However I do not know where the division was between Army Council Instructions and Army Orders.

Could members of the forum please explain the differences in use between ACIs and Army Orders.

Regards

Justin

[Justinth]

Thank you Mr Swan for this. This leads to the questions

1) Who was responsible for converting A.C.I.s into Army Orders?

2) Why the mix of references to Army Orders and A.C.I.s on service records when you would expect Army Orders as the implementationary instruction to be referred to alone?

3) How were the A.C.I.s and Army Orders distributed within the Army heirarchy (plus how widespread would their disemination be)?

Regards

Justin