Guest lightburn Posted 29 January , 2004 Share Posted 29 January , 2004 Does a soldier, commissioned from the ranks,keep his same service number,throughout his service? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Tulloch-Marshall Posted 29 January , 2004 Share Posted 29 January , 2004 During WW1 British Officers did not have "service numbers". When an Other Rank was discharged to commission his service number no longer had any relevance. regards - Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gem22 Posted 29 January , 2004 Share Posted 29 January , 2004 I can't speak for the Army but in the RAF that was the practice during my career. The only difference being that from 1964 a prefix letter was added to ORs service numbers in order to simplify Record Office computerisation. The added letter gave us the same number of characters in our service number as the Army had in theirs. Officers commissioned from the ranks did not retain the prefix letter. Garth Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Tulloch-Marshall Posted 29 January , 2004 Share Posted 29 January , 2004 ............... 1964 .............. Garth - I'm sorry if I've somehow caused confusion - I was refering to British Army Officers during WW1 - 1914-1918. They had War Office file reference numbers, but they did not have "service numbers". regards - Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul guthrie Posted 29 January , 2004 Share Posted 29 January , 2004 US officers also did not have #s til after WW1. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yorts Posted 30 January , 2004 Share Posted 30 January , 2004 Do note that Army Officers did have a 'long number' used for pay purposes during WW1, as per WO 338. Rgds, Alex. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Tulloch-Marshall Posted 30 January , 2004 Share Posted 30 January , 2004 Do note that Army Officers did have a 'long number' used for pay purposes during WW1, as per WO 338. Rgds, Alex. Alex - I can only refer you back to my postings above. You are correct in that TNA record class WO338 lists the file reference numbers (the "long numbers") for Regular Army Officers who served at the time of WW1, but this is not to be confused with having a "service number". regards - Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Reed Posted 30 January , 2004 Share Posted 30 January , 2004 Do note that Army Officers did have a 'long number' used for pay purposes during WW1, as per WO 338. Rgds, Alex. They may well have, but as Tom says this is not the same as a regimental number, and I suspect few, if any, officers would have been aware of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terry_Reeves Posted 31 January , 2004 Share Posted 31 January , 2004 Personal numbers for officers were authorised on December 31st 1929 and in use from the following day. They were only to be used for administrative purposes and not in normal correspondence. Terry Reeves Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yorts Posted 2 February , 2004 Share Posted 2 February , 2004 I agree that 'long numbers' were not a service / regimental number; they were used for pay purposes only as I stated in my previous posting. I included them merely as a clarification of war office reference numbers. As to whether officers were aware of their numbers is a different matter. I know of one Canadian officer who most definitley did know of his long pay number as he quoted it is correspondance. No doubt it bore some relation of my own 'employee number' (not military!) is use today. Certainly it helps big brother find me if I have a wage query so maybe an officer would be better aquainted with his if it affected his fiscal renumeration. Apologies if my original posting was unclear or misleading, My very best regards , Alex. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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