War Gratuities

[ss002d6252]

Written answers (Commons) of Thursday, 13thFebruary, 1919.

Craig

[johnboy]

The last 2 paragraphs re Service Gratuities refer to a gratuity drawn on discharge. The men we are looking at were not discharged they were killed.

There is mention of dissatisfaction amongst discharged soldiers and sailors, no mention of nok of men that were killed.

I wonder if the Pension Office left any records?

[ss002d6252]

The same rules (or rules giving the same outcome) appear to being applied re the service gratuity re deceased as it was to discharged men -see post #24.

The figure of £2 (and occasionally more) is coming out too often in the calculation to be a coincidence - the actual rules may not be known but once a relatively consistent figure can be tied down it can be used to give a rough idea.

Craig

[ss002d6252]

The £2+ service gratuity is discussed here - https://archive.org/stream/thewarpensionsallow00hoggrich#page/360/mode/2up

It gives me something further to work with.

Craig

[ss002d6252]

Excellent - all of the men I've tested tonight are accurate within a month or so (famous last words) - enough to give an idea of possible enlistment date.

I've posted a copy of my spreadsheet here so if anyone wants to try it to see if it's useful it would be appreciated.

http://goo.gl/nny4m8

Craig

[ss002d6252]

It looks like article 1117 of the Pay Warrant covers the service pay gratuity that was paid at £1 per year.

Craig

[ss002d6252]

Thanks to Terry I now have a copy of article 1117 of the Pay Warrant which appears to confirm my thoughts regarding the service gratuity (£1 per year/part year, £2 minimum as the basic payment). Taking this to account (however it was actually paid out) makes my calculations of enlistment dates pretty accurate in their estimates.

Craig

[RussT]

Craig

My Great Uncle died on 12/07/1917 (as a private). A £4 gratuity was awarded as per the Soldier's Effects Register. Whilst his service records did not survive, I had already worked out from his service numbers that he must have enlisted mid May 1916, which your estimator gives.

I did notice however that (for a private) with a date of death as above, the following estimated enlistments dates (and estimated lengths of service) are returned for the following gratuity values:

Gratuity (£) Service (months) Estimated Date

3 12 July 16

4 14 May 16

5 12 July 16

6 14 May 16

7 16 Mar 16

8 19 Jan 16

Is this right? - what is the reason for up and down swings between £3 and £6?

Regards

Russ

[ss002d6252]

Russ

Craig

My Great Uncle died on 12/07/1917 (as a private). A £4 gratuity was awarded as per the Soldier's Effects Register. Whilst his service records did not survive, I had already worked out from his service numbers that he must have enlisted mid May 1916, which your estimator gives.

I did notice however that (for a private) with a date of death as above, the following estimated enlistments dates (and estimated lengths of service) are returned for the following gratuity values:

Gratuity (£) Service (months) Estimated Date

3 12 July 16

4 14 May 16

5 12 July 16

6 14 May 16

7 16 Mar 16

8 19 Jan 16

Is this right? - what is the reason for up and down swings between £3 and £6?

Regards

Russ

I'll send you a message - you may have (possibly) found a bug in my calc but the more the merrier until I tie it down (although I'm not trying for 100% accuracy I'd like to get it near).

Craig

[ss002d6252]

Version 3 of the estimator - http://goo.gl/EcIWLo

Craig

[clk]

Craig,

Many thanks for sharing your work.

Regards

Chris

[ss002d6252]

Craig,

Many thanks for sharing your work.

Regards

Chris

It should be accurate to within a month or so but please feel free to shout up with any bugs which appear.

Craig

[RussT]

Many thanks to Craig for uncovering background on how the war gratuity was awarded, and for his enlistment prediction tool, posted above in post #35. I’ve spent a couple of lazy hours on a little case study to see if the output can contribute to the overall discussion. I’m sharing these observations here without attempting to explain them – perhaps others can help with that.

I’ve extracted from the Soldier’s Effects Register the war gratuity awarded to those men who joined (all were either Derby Scheme men or conscripts) the RFA in mid-May 1916 (between 10/05/1916 and 20/05/1916) and who were allotted a 6-digit RFA service number in the series 137xxx. Out of these 1000 men, I found 121 recorded deaths in CWGC. A sizable number of deaths in this number series occurred whilst men were serving with various infantry regiments, having been transferred (in mid-June 1916) to the infantry from the RFA shortly after enlisting. Four men did not serve overseas, and either no soldier’s effects record could be found or no war gratuity was awarded even though a record existed.

In this case study, I found three ways in which the war gratuity was recorded in the registers, with an example for each shown below:

Type 1: This was the most common. A red-stamped box with the words “War Gratuity” inside and the value of the gratuity alongside.

Type 2: The next most common. No red-stamped box but there are words (in red) stating “Including War Gratuity” with the value recorded alongside. This is taken to mean that the man’s total credit included the quoted value of the war gratuity.

Type 3: This was the least common (3 examples found in this case study). This Type is as Type 1 (with the red-stamped box and war gratuity recorded alongside) but the man’s total credit also includes a “gratuity” contribution, which in all cases found was recorded as being £2.

The first 20 men in this series (who enlisted on the 10/05/1916) are shown below, together with the predicted date of enlistment calculated using Craig’s prediction tool as a function of the recorded date of death, the man’s rank at death and the value of the recorded War Gratuity. Those men who were transferred to the infantry are identifiable from the rank column e.g. recorded as a private rather than a gunner or driver. The predicted dates of enlistment highlighted in red lie outside +/- 3 months of the known enlistment date (i.e. centred on May 1916 but outside the range Feb 1916 to August 1916).

All the results are plotted in the following post. The first plot shows the value of the war gratuity (rounded down to the nearest £) as a function of the date of death. There is a general increase in the war gratuity with increasing date of death, as expected. The second plot shows the predicted month of enlistment versus the date of death. A good proportion of the data lie within +/- 3 months of the known month of enlistment (May 1916) but there are a few significant outliers which might be worthy of further investigation. There also appears to be a systematic under-prediction for the month of enlistment for the earlier dates of death.

One variable not used in the prediction, and I’m uncertain as to its importance for evaluating the value of the war gratuity, is the length of a man’s service overseas. From records that do exist for these men, it seems many were sent overseas in the autumn of 1916 but I’m wondering if this variable might be needed to explain the variance in the results found here in this small case study.

Any feedback any welcome

Russ

Here are the plots as a continuation of the previous post:

[ss002d6252]

Many thanks to Craig for uncovering background on how the war gratuity was awarded, and for his enlistment prediction tool, posted above in post #35. I’ve spent a couple of lazy hours on a little case study to see if the output can contribute to the overall discussion. I’m sharing these observations here without attempting to explain them – perhaps others can help with that.

Thank you - hopefully we can as I'm sure the reasoning behind it will add to our combined knowledge of the gratuity.

One variable not used in the prediction, and I’m uncertain as to its importance for evaluating the value of the war gratuity, is the length of a man’s service overseas. From records that do exist for these men, it seems many were sent overseas in the autumn of 1916 but I’m wondering if this variable might be needed to explain the variance in the results found here in this small case study.

I believe that 'Not too much' is the answer to this - as long as a man had served overseas then he was pretty much in the same position in that only length of overall service mattered -with the caveat that there were also some issues where a man had been drawing a service pension during service (I've yet to full explore these issues).

Craig

[ss002d6252]

#137029

Gratuity of 11s 9s 1d

This gratuity has been partially drawn in advance as there should no odd pence - the actual gratuity was was awarded in pounds and shillings. This suggests that he had drawn part of the service gratuity before death and the balance was paid to the man.

By my calculations - From May 16 to October 18 a private would have accrued a total of 30 months - so £5 for the first12 months and 10s per months for the next 18 months, a total of £14. With £14 the calculator comes as back as March 16 - slightly early but I suspect it's the rounding in my calculator.

Craig

[ss002d6252]

#137055

Gratuity of £9

By my quick calculations - From May 16 to June18 a private would have accrued a total a total of £12. With £12 the calculator comes as back as March 16 - slightly early but I suspect it's the rounding in my calculator.

This gratuity looks like has been partially paid in advance. This suggests that he had drawn part of the service gratuity before death and the balance was paid to the man. By the time he died there would have been £3 service gratuity payable(within the overall amount) which is the same as the shortfall - the question is to exactly how this was drawn.

Craig

[ss002d6252]

#137098

Gratuity of £5 10s

By my calculations - From May 16 to October 17 a private would have accrued a total of 18 months - so £5 for the first 12 months and 10s per months for the next 6 months, a total of £8. With £8 the calculator comes as back as April 16 - slightly early but I suspect it's the rounding in my calculator.

This gratuity looks like it has been partially paid in advance. This suggests that he had drawn part of the service gratuity before death and the balance was paid to the man. By the time he died there would have been £3 service gratuity payable(within the overall amount) - the question is to exactly how this was drawn.

Craig

[ss002d6252]

#137115

#137116

#137129

#137135

This is down to the limitations of using the soldiers effects - any award of £5 or less would indicate an enlistment period of 12 months or less at the date of death - my calculator just gives an earliest date as it's impossible to estimate any better than that with the minimum award.

Craig

[ss002d6252]

#137156

Gratuity of £11

By my calculations - From May 16 to October 18 a private would have accrued a total of 30 months - so £5 for the first 12 months and 10s per months for the next 18 months, a total of £14. With £14 the calculator comes as back as April 16 - slightly early but I suspect it's the rounding in my calculator.

This gratuity looks like it has been partially paid in advance. This suggests that he had drawn part of the service gratuity before death and the balance was paid to the man. By the time he died there would have been £3 service gratuity payable(within the overall amount) which is the same as the shortfall - the question is to exactly how this was drawn.

Craig

[ss002d6252]

#137170

Gratuity of £8 10s

By my calculations - From May 16 to May 18 a private would have accrued a total of 25 months - so £5 for the first 12 months and 10s per months for the next 13 months, a total of £11 10s. With £11 10s the calculator comes as back as March 16 - slightly early but I suspect it's the rounding in my calculator.

This gratuity looks like it has been partially paid in advance. This suggests that he had drawn part of the service gratuity before death and the balance was paid to the man. By the time he died there would have been £3 service gratuity payable(within the overall amount) which is the same as the shortfall - the question is to exactly how this was drawn.

Craig

[ss002d6252]

#137174

Gratuity of £10 10s

By my calculations - From May 16 to October 18 a private would have accrued a total of 30 months - so £5 for the first 12 months and 10s per months for the next 18 months, a total of £14. With £14 the calculator comes as back as April 16 - slightly early but I suspect it's the rounding in my calculator.

This gratuity looks like it has been partially paid in advance. This suggests that he had drawn part of the service gratuity before death and the balance was paid to the man. By the time he died there would have been £3 service gratuity payable(within the overall amount) - the question is to exactly how this was drawn.

Craig

[RussT]

Craig

Thanks for the feedback.

Yes, I agree that a man dying within the first 12 months after enlistment (awarded with a £5 gratuity or less) will mean a prediction that he could have enlisted anytime during the 12 months prior to dying. So we would expect potential significant variability for those cases - with the expectation of a predicted enlistment date earlier than actual. As you say, all it can give is the earliest date of enlistment.

I can also see that for men dying after 12 months of service, then it would be more likely than not for his service gratuity to have already been credited to his account. In that case, many of the war gratuity values recorded in the registers are likely to be reduced by £2 (I understand it was £2 irrespective of length of service - unless you have found otherwise). When £2 is added, the predictions are much closer, as you have pointed out in the examples above.

As to the question of how this service gratuity was drawn, I can only assume it was credited to his pay book. Perhaps members with example copies of pay books might find an example.

Regards

Russ

[ss002d6252]

I can also see that for men dying after 12 months of service, then it would be more likely than not for his service gratuity to have already been credited to his account. In that case, many of the war gratuity values recorded in the registers are likely to be reduced by £2 (I understand it was £2 irrespective of length of service - unless you have found otherwise). When £2 is added, the predictions are much closer, as you have pointed out in the examples above.

It was £2 basic + £1 for each extra year.

It threw me and I nearly gave up on the calculations at first.

Craig

[ss002d6252]

As to the question of how this service gratuity was drawn, I can only assume it was credited to his pay book. Perhaps members with example copies of pay books might find an example.

Regards

Russ

Why I didn't I think of something so obvious as looking for pay books !

Craig

[johnboy]

It is not the paybooks but the ledgers that are needed.