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army ranks and wages in wwII

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arturoega...@gmail.com

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May 15, 2013, 11:19:16 PM5/15/13
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I am writing a novel about wwII, and I need ranks and salary of british army. Can anyone help me?

Bill

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May 16, 2013, 11:56:12 AM5/16/13
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On Wed, 15 May 2013 23:19:16 -0400, arturoega...@gmail.com
wrote:

>I am writing a novel about wwII, and I need ranks and salary of british army. Can anyone help me?

Amazon Books probably...

Des

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May 16, 2013, 2:45:51 PM5/16/13
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/71/a1108171.shtml

The poster says that he was paid 2s/day as an infantry private in
1939, and 17/6 a day in 1945 as a lieutenant.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/58/a2778258.shtml

- also refers to 2s/day and writes that the British Government had
all pay records destroyed in 1947 to prevent researchers accessing
them, which seems strange..

Bill

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May 16, 2013, 7:10:44 PM5/16/13
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On Thu, 16 May 2013 14:45:51 -0400, Des <desmond...@gmail.com>
wrote:
That's a very odd letter, full of pain and fury at being treated just
the same as everyone else, and a great deal better than men serving
overseas who never ever got UK leave to see their families.

The pay records were not destroyed to prevent the records being
examined.

The law requires the government to keep the records for some seven
years and then the individual pay records can be destroyed, although
invariably some are retained for the Public Records Office.

The pay scales are retained and are available for scrutiny.

Don Phillipson

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May 16, 2013, 7:32:15 PM5/16/13
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<arturoega...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:be5967e2-c94b-4e0c...@googlegroups.com...

>I am writing a novel about wwII, and I need ranks and salary of british
>army. Can anyone help me?

The pay question has been answered. Ranks are accurately given in many
encyclopedic books, e.g. Reader's Digest, The Tools of War 1939/45 (1969.)
A problem peculiar to the British army is that some units retained 19th
century ranks, thus a Royal Artillery corporal (two stripes) is called
Bombardier, not Corporal, junior cavalry officers were called Ensign or
Cornet, etc. Novelist Evelyn Waugh had fun with this, creating the ranks
Halberdier and Corporal of Horse for the regiment he invented. RN and
RAF ranks were however uniform.

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

Bill

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May 17, 2013, 9:26:38 AM5/17/13
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The rank 'Corporal of Horse' is not fictional.

It is the rank used by sergeants in the Household Cavalry regiments.

Welcome to the lunatic world that is NCO ranks in the Household
Division.

(Always remembering that Brigade of Guards NCOs take an extra stripe)

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