Oath for military service in RFC

[Grid]

Hi all, a bit of a basic question: I assume that servicemen in the war swore an oath to the King, does anyone know where I can find this?  Also at what point would this be done? Best, Adam

[IPT]

Oath of allegiance

 

I, ____________ swear by Almighty God, that I will be faithful and bear true Allegiance to His Majesty King George the Fifth, His Heirs, and Successors, and that I will, as in duty bound, honestly and faithfully defend His Majesty, His Heirs, and Successors, in Person, Crown, and Dignity against all enemies, according to the conditions of my service.

 

 

This is worth a read - https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/from-civilian-to-first-world-war-soldier-in-8-steps

 

[Grid]

Excellent, thanks for that. Would the airmen swear this before or after getting their 'wings'?

[ICM - RAF Retd]

I stand to be corrected on this but that oath format looks to me as one that would have applied to all those joining-up and I'd have expected it to be administered very soon after signing on and before any training, whether as pilot, fitter, or anything else, had begun.

[clive_hughes]

You're right.  The oath of attestation was literally the legal point at which a civilian became a serviceman.  It's the day he made the oath which counts as his date of enlistment (in many circumstances he would also then be given his first day's pay - the King's Shilling - and a small allowance for expenses).  Everything else in his career follows after that.

 

Clive

[Patrickneame]

I was researching the oath today and independently found the article mentioned above by IPT. Further on in my list of search results I came upon this

https://www.alamy.com/british-army-recruits-taking-the-oath-ww1-image66154575.html

which is another photograph of the same group of recruits taking the oath. The venue is the same, the sergeant in the background is the same but the officer administering the oath is different and instead of bibles the recruits have their right hands raised. Also of note is that the officer in IPT's photo, a Lieutenant appears to need a crutch. The books in that photograph also have their spines away from the camera and might well not be bibles at all.

I suspect that the photographer had a limited amount of time but needed to serve two publications and had to come back with two photographs that looked at least a bit different.