Use of Military Rank in Civilian Life

[Lambretta150]

There are shedloads of London Gazette entries such as:

"Capt HM Farrington relinquishes his commission on ceasing to be employed, 12 Nov 1919 and retains the rank of Capt."

"Lt AL Paget relinquishes his commission on ceasing to be employed, !2 Nov 1919 and is granted the rank of Captain"

Lt WA Pollock relinquishes his commission on ceasing to be employed, !2 Nov 1919 and retains the rank of Lieutenant."

As to who made the individual decision.: Ministry Clerks, Board of Officers? Double-headed Penny.............

It would seem to me that there was a system that took account of earlier Acting Rank in according what was basically an honorific, but also would have had utility if recalled to the Colours for any subsequent Emergency.

As for whether the title was used..............Purely up to the individual, if accorded the right, although I too have heard tell of a convention that it was Majors and above who would use it.

[edwin astill]

I believe that US President Wilson had a Col House as Chief Adviser who had never held military rank. "Colonel" was an honorary title bestowed on local worthies, particularly in the Southern states. I`m not sure who bestowed it, perhaps self-bestowed! Phil B

Some years ago it was possible to obtain a commission in the Confederate Air Force. I regret not taking up the offer.

Edwin Astill

[Moonraker]

QUOTE(m13pgb @ Jan 21 2006, 03:50 PM) *

I believe that US President Wilson had a Col House as Chief Adviser who had never held military rank. "Colonel" was an honorary title bestowed on local worthies, particularly in the Southern states. I`m not sure who bestowed it, perhaps self-bestowed! Phil B

A long-standing tradition; the three best-known heroes of the Alamo (1836), Davy Crockett, William Travis and Jim Bowie were all deemed colonels but with very little formal military training.

And so was Buffalo Bill Cody, not to mention his namesake, Colonel Sam Cody, the American aviator who was a leading pioneer of aviation in Britain preWWI. Sam also looked like Bill, and was probably happy to have some of his fame rub off on him. Pics of the two sometimes get confused, as, I think, in the Daily Mail of December 27, 1999, which ran a double-page article culled from Garry Jenkins' book "Colonel" Cody and the Flying Cathedral, (the Flying Cathedral being the name of his cumbersome machine which won the Military Aeroplane Competition in 1912).

Moonraker

[PhilB]

Edwin - Did it get the applicant out of going to Nam?

Moonraker - Would you guess that the title was self-bestowed or was there some accepted criterion? Phil B

[Dragon]

I have read this thread with some interest, knowing virtually nothing about ranks.

I know of one Great War veteran, who died some years ago, who insisted on using the title Major in civilian life, that is, since 1919, claiming that he was allowed to use it because he had held a rank (unspecified) in that war. I have viewed his service records and his medal card, and looked him up in the London Gazette, because I was finding out information for one of his relatives. I am convinced that the highest he reached was Sergeant.

I checked this with a forum member who is considerably more knowledgeable than I will ever be, and he confirmed that the man concerned wasn't entitled to call himself Major. Yet he did, even on invitations to his daughter's wedding and on letters to tradespeople (the grocery order, for example). Another veteran who survived the Somme with an injury viewed 'Major' S as a fraud and despised him.

I assume that he thought that no-one would have the audacity to challenge the use of a title by someone who had been in the war, and so he got away with it; and I suppose that the war was a highlight of what turned out to be a dull life in which he felt he had no status any more, so he invented a glamour and rank for himself in compensation.

Gwyn

[BeppoSapone]

I know of one Great War veteran, who died some years ago, who insisted on using the title Major in civilian life, that is, since 1919, claiming that he was allowed to use it because he had held a rank (unspecified) in that war. I have viewed his service records and his medal card, and looked him up in the London Gazette, because I was finding out information for one of his relatives. I am convinced that the highest he reached was Sergeant.

Gwyn

It is a shame that it is more difficult to 'look into' WW2 soldiers. The man I am going to mention will be long dead by now, but I would like to know how genuine his rank really was.

One of my schoolteachers was a sadistic swine who made lots of young kids lives a misery for no reason. This total a***h*** insisted on being called Major H-.

Years after I left school this person was on the front page of the local paper. He had 'organised' an attack on a local Asian shop. He drove some teenaged members of a club that he formed at the school to the shop and waited while they smashed the windows. At the trial it turned out that the gallant Major had also founded the local branch of the National Front.

[stu]

Can I use my forum rank in correspondance

Stu

[aodhdubh]

Can I use my forum rank in correspondance

Stu

Governors of US States often hand out honorary commissions in their state militias... even though no states, to my knowledge, still retain their militias. This is how Colonel Sanders received his rank.

It's also how an illegal Dutch immigrant, real name Andreas van Kuijk, became Colonel Tom Parker (Elvis Presley's "The Colonel").

I always thought it divisive and discriminatory that enlisted men, including 21 year NCOs, were not permitted to retain their rank. I was particularly annoyed once i received my discharge certificate from the TA, which included the line 'discharged, subject to recall'. So, you're never out, but you can't use your rank.

What about Warrant Officers, given Captaincies on retirement? I suppose that if a Captain cannot use his rank in civil life, it's a pointless award, unless it gives a higher pension, or gets them in the officers' mess for re-unions, or summat...

[SiegeGunner]

The President of my home town's rugby club in the 1960's was one Major Puttee.

[aodhdubh]

The President of my home town's rugby club in the 1960's was one Major Puttee.

...ex-Indian Army, or the famous military haberdasher?

And, President? I wouldn't have taken a Rugby man for a republican...

A late friend, and former colleague, ex-Liverpool Scottish, ex-Cameron highlanders, ex-Bermuda Militia Artillery, ex-Bermuda Regiment, was Major Burns.

Actually, I knew a rather girlish private in the TA who was addressed by all ranks as 'Major'...but there's a funny story to his moniker. We also had a C/Sgt named 'Princess'...he was a RQMS, but someone decided he had to do the Platoon Sergreants Course at Brecon (I think, originally started by Bermudian Major General Glynn Gilbert for airborne sergeants, then extended to the rest of the Army), and he felt too many peas under a mattress.

[SiegeGunner]

No idea where the good Major served, but his name really was Puttee, because I remember seeing it on the 'Past Presidents' board in the clubhouse. A generation of kit later, a contemporary in my school cadet force was called Blanco (but not Serge).

Mick

[DrB]

I must change my sign-off from DrB to Captain B, DC, USN, (Retired)

DrB