Presenting arms to junior officer

[Moonraker]

Cryptic entry in the diary of James Jenkins (3-7782), 12th Service Battalion, Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders:

"Sentry ‘presents to arms’ to Lieut + is reprimanded – Lieut is on staff + wore red band on cap hence mistake."

Dated March 6,1915, when the 12th was training at Sutton Veny, Wiltshire.

Presumably arms were only presented to officers of a certain rank and above?

 

[WhiteStarLine]

20 minutes ago, Moonraker said:

Presumably arms were only presented to officers of a certain rank and above?

Yes, only officers of field rank and above were eligible for present arms.  Drummed into us many, many times!

Field rank (major) was the first rank authorised to change the tactical deployment in the field.  Imagine an 18th century British Army company with front rank lying, middle rank kneeling, rear rank standing.  If you wanted to change this to some other disposition, you needed to be of field rank.

Many years ago it was a great way to confuse newly promoted majors by presenting arms - they would look at you a bit stunned, not quite sure how to respond.

In your example, a real faux-pas but the poor sentry was probably unaware that staff officers wore the same red tabs that senior officers did - think Captain Darling in Blackadder.

[FROGSMILE]

2 hours ago, Moonraker said:

Cryptic entry in the diary of James Jenkins (3-7782), 12th Service Battalion, Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders:

"Sentry ‘presents to arms’ to Lieut + is reprimanded – Lieut is on staff + wore red band on cap hence mistake."

Dated March 6,1915, when the 12th was training at Sutton Veny, Wiltshire.

Presumably arms were only presented to officers of a certain rank and above?

 

Below field rank a butt salute was the correct protocol.

Edited 21 November , 2022 by FROGSMILE

[TullochArd]

2 hours ago, WhiteStarLine said:

Yes, only officers of field rank and above were eligible for present arms.  

....... as confirmed by KRR (1912) Para 1803 'Honours paid by sentries' 

 

Edited 21 November , 2022 by TullochArd

[Moonraker]

Thanks for the prompt replies. I was going to suggest that the sentry might have been unable to see the lieutenant's shoulder badges, but in March 1915, officers' rank insignia were displayed on the lower arm.  It may be that the man himself had only received his own uniform at the end of January, judging from another diary entry.

(The hotchpotch of uniforms worn by Kitchener recruits in the first months of the war has been discussed elsewhere on the GWF. I imagine that officers bought their own as soon as possible after being commissioned, so the man could not have pleaded ignorance of the insignia.)