Officer's First Appointment Form: Arthur Henry Augustus Jacob: 1914

[rolt968]

I found this in Arthur Jacob's Officer's record:

For those who can't decipher it the Family or Territorial Claims for the Royal Fusliers are:

• Capt A A C FitzClarence; cousin. Now serving in 5th Battn.
• Lt Colonel C FitzClarence; cousin. Now commanding Irish Guards, formerly in R F.
• Great grandmother, Lady Augusta FitzClarence presented Colours to one of the battalions in the reign of William IV.

(If he had really wanted to drop names, he could have added that William IV was his great great grandfather! Or that Charles FitzClarence was awarded the VC while serving with the Royal Fusiliers.)

There is a little more against his second choice - the Black Watch and even more on the next page where he lists the connections on his father's side.

I was intrigued never having seen one of these forms before. Were these kind of entries common?

(He was accepted into the Royal Fusiliers.)

RM

 

 

[Ruadhan Scrivener-Anderson]

I'm a little late in answering this question but yes, this was common. Every candidate for a regular commission filled out the First Appointments Form shortly before they were commissioned. It is often referred to as the 'preference form'. They could either specify three regiments to which they would like to be appointed (in order of preference, hence 'preference form'), in which case they would be appointed to whichever of the three regiments there was a vacancy in. Alternatively, they could specify just one regiment, in which case they were allowed to wait up to 6 months for a vacancy to occur in that regiment.

The decision of which regiment the officer was appointed to was made by the Military Secretary to the Secretary of State for War, based on the preference of regiment and the claims listed on the form (family claims [also called regimental claims] were obviously family connections to the regiment, territorial claims were connections to the regiment's district/recruiting area). From 1914 onwards the Colonel of the Regiment could also submit a recommendation in favour of a candidate if he desired that candidate to be appointed to his regiment.

In cases of candidates with equally strong claims applying for limited vacancies in one regiment the Military Secretary made the decision based on the candidates' placing in the Order of Merit or Order of Nomination (basically how well they performed in their commissioning exams). 

If there were no vacancies in any of the candidate's preferred regiments they would be sent wherever officers were needed, regardless of claims. 

[rolt968]

Thank you that's very helpful. (I suppose it's only to modern eyes that it looks like a lot of name dropping.)

AHA Jacob's second choice was the Black Watch. The claim was territorial - that his mother's family were the Kennedy-Erskines of Dun.

The third choice was the Shropshire Light Infantry for which he gave no reason.

His father was a Major in 20 Hussars and two Jacobs were in the RGA. Intriguingly he claimed (distant) connections to the Jacob of Jacob's Horse.

RM