Dutch Promotion

[Clackattack]

I am researching an Australian Regimental Medical Officer attached to The Australian 11th Light Horse Regiment.  He refers in one of his letters to being given a "Dutch Promotion".  Does anyone know what this refers to please?

[DavidOwen]

Welcome to the forum

I cannot help with your exact question but in looking into it I did find this resource - Digger Dialects by WH Downing on Internet Archive Digger Dialects: A Collection of Slang Phrases used by the Australian Soldiers on Active Service : W.H. Downing : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive The only possibility being "Butch" referring to a Doctor but I suspect an expert will be along soon to give you the correct answer

[busterfield]

Demotion maybe, as in Dutch auction ? His record being Australian would be easily seachable for ranks.

 

Edited 29 June , 2023 by busterfield

[FROGSMILE]

@Clackattack I think it’s probably a mixed idiom (as in mixed metaphor).  The following is extracted from details in the Oxford English Dictionary:

During the Anglo-Dutch Wars that began in the late 17th century, a number of English idioms sprang up that used “Dutch” derisively.

Here are a few that we still use, which are thought to be rooted in the war between the two empires, gathered from the Oxford English Dictionary and the Oxford Concise Dictionary of Place Names.

1. to “go Dutch” or to have a “Dutch treat” is to eat out with each person paying for their own bill, possibly from a stereotype of Dutch frugality

2. “Dutch courage” is nerve one gets from drinking alcohol, possibly related to a stereotype of the Dutch being heavy drinkers, or maybe a dig that associates Dutchness and falseness

3. a “Dutch bargain,” which means a deal struck over booze, likely has similar origins as the above, and is less common today

The surviving idioms from the Anglo-Dutch Wars share linguistic territory with phrases that also target the Irish.

English prejudice against the Irish often depicts people from Ireland as unreliable or low-class; some phrases that still survive (albeit uncommonly used) are an “Irish promotion” (a demotion), an “Irish hint” (an unsubtle hint, like an elbow jab).

Conclusion: given the strong cultural and etymological ties between Britain and Australia, and the many Irish immigrants there, it seems possible that “Dutch Promotion” is a conflation of the two idioms, and was referring to what the Australian writer perceived at the time as a demotion.

Edited 1 July , 2023 by FROGSMILE

[stevenbecker]

Mate,

It also would depend on what RMO of the 11 LHR your talking about, as there were a number including three blokes name Murphy

For my understanding of our Army it was a sometimes used for a Temp or non perm change of rank.

Some times when filling in for another bloke they would again a Temp rank which would happen for short peroids, but could also become perm.

Its a term that was not used often and only by certain parts of our country.

Then again I maybe way off base

S.B