Overseas Service Chevrons

[Promenade]

If a soldier crossed to France in May 1916 and was demobilised in June 1919 (do not know when he returned to UK) how many blue chevrons is he entitled to. I believe 3 on the assumption in returned to the UK soon before demob.

The reason I ask is that his family have his chevron patch from his uniform which has four blue chevrons. Futhermore his demob cert states he was entitled to 3 chevrons. His service paperwork has not survived.

 

[mark holden]

Soldiers often self awarded extra chevrons based on either a misunderstanding of the regulations or because their mates were doing the same. Misunderstanding regulations is a common issue with soldiers both then and to the present day.

[Andrew Upton]

10 minutes ago, Promenade said:

If a soldier crossed to France in May 1916 and was demobilised in June 1919 (do not know when he returned to UK) how many blue chevrons is he entitled to. I believe 3 on the assumption in returned to the UK soon before demob.

The reason I ask is that his family have his chevron patch from his uniform which has four blue chevrons. Futhermore his demob cert states he was entitled to 3 chevrons. His service paperwork has not survived.

 

Assuming he was near constantly overseas for all that time then four blue stripes would be correct - entitlement to first blue stripe the first day he served overseas, each subsequent blue stripe for an additional 12 months service (with an allowance of up to one months leave to still be counted towards the total). However - from the dates you quote that would be cutting it fine, and it reads to me like he came close to getting his fourth stripe officially but leave etc whittled it down just enough to technically only be three. Perhaps he felt as Mark says above this was close-enough and gave himself the fourth?

[Promenade]

Many thanks for these explanations - I had always thought that the final decision on awarding the chevrons was in the hands of the authorities - which is why I added the demob image relating to the award. I suppose that he may have appealed for an extra chevron or he had been able to get his hands on a four chevron patch and self-awarded! I think I will go with the former explanation rather than the latter when I get back to the family

Once again many thanks for your speedy replies.

Promenade