Royal Artillery terms of service

[Keith_history_buff]

I have been in contact with someone whose family member died in WW1, and had served pre-war for eight years in the artillery. 

There is a useful table, in relation to the infantry & terms of service in the thread below:

I know nothing about the artillery, but was there the ability to extend to eight years, which I have seen some infantrymen do, or would he have signed up for twelve in July 1902 and bought himself out? LLT says that the terms of service for the artillery in 1914 were six years with the colours, and the remaining six with the reserve.

Thanks
Keith

EDIT: Correction of link, given that a post from that thread had been deleted in the mean time

Edited 13 August , 2021 by Keith_history_buff
Correction of link

[David Porter]

Certainly around 1905/6, in the RFA, there was the ability to extend to eight years. 38799 Gnr. Walter Herbert Davies initially enlisted on a 3/9 attestation (B 217) in August 1905, but then extends to 8 years almost a year later. However, he subsequently purchased his discharge in March 1910.

[Muerrisch]

In the period 1900 to 1914 there was astonishing complexity of terms, including three different infantry ones in a matter of a few years [7 and 5, 3 and 9, 9 and 3].

 Foot Guards [ 3 and 9 only] ;cavalry and artillery took longer to train and so were different again; boys taken to a trade were committed to 12 .................

Then we have conditional permissions to extend, and also extend to pension ..............

then the ability to purchase out, with the cost varying with length of time left to serve, then we have almost annual offers/ inducements to keep the units [horse foot and guns] in the colonies/dominions/Empire to strength, by incentivising soldiers to stay or leave ........................ the only generalisation is that generalisation is impossible.

 

The Victorians and Edwardians were meticulous book-keepers, and every year every unit had a tabulation of how many men were signed for X years, Y, years, Z years etc etc and there were almost as many columns as letters in the alphabet. [Slight exaggeration but poetic licence]

[Keith_history_buff]

The following was authored by the Regimental Historian for the Royal Regiment of Artillery. It is reproduced under fair use terms, and the entire article is on the WFA website
 

Quote

Furthermore, contrary to popular and contemporary French and German belief, the ranks of the British Army were not filled with hardened, long service veterans. The majority of Britain’s private soldiers were relatively recent enlistments, with a high proportion having less than two years’ service at the outbreak of the war

If the terms of service are three years, it stands to reason that most Gunners, serving with the colours at the outbreak of war, will have had less than two years service.

Link to article of WFA website
https://www.westernfrontassociation.com/world-war-i-articles/the-scum-of-the-earth/

 

[Keith_history_buff]

Note to self:

Army Order 209 of 1906 had an impact upon those men enlisting from mid-August 1906 onwards. The terms for RHA & RFA are 6 & 6, and for RGA are 8 & 4.

A copy of the aforementioned Army Order 209 can be found on the "Terms of Service" thread, a link for which is in the original post that initiated this thread.

[Keith_history_buff]

Based on some trawling done earlier, it would appear that artillerymen were serving 7 & 5 and 3 & 9 at the same time as their peers in the infantry, for the time period 1881-1902, then 1902 to whenever.