promotions,random or based on merit?

[shaner13]

Hi
                                                                                                                          Ive found my g grandad was placed in the position of acting lance corporal the day before his division left the laventie sector for ypres,this will have been done in the reserve area,he served in this sector for 6 months.He did reach rank of corporal by 1918,but his promotions were all back in blighty in a training battalion,after injuring his knee in early 1916.
How merit based were promotions during ww1? i have read they could be very random,ie one officer in a service battalion made all the men sporting mustaches in to lance corporals.

[km1971]

Lance Corporal was strickly speaking an appointment rather than a rank. Each battalion had a limited number of 'paid' lance corporals so most men were first appointed as 'unpaid'. It was used to test if a man could accept the extra responsibility. So like all promotions in the army they would first look at the longest serving man first and decide if he was suitable. There were no laws that required you to promote the longest serving Private. After a period they either obtained a paid appointment, or reverted to Private. Some men did not like giving orders to their mates and requested the change themselves.

Acting Lance Corporal suggests they were short of NCOs. The key really is the next line in the list - how long was he Acting, and did he go up or down? Men in substantive ranks - Corporals, Sergeants etc - could not be demoted just because they had too many.

Ken

[Redroger]

I have some evidence, i.e. a postcard addressed to him as Lance Corporal that my father became a L/Cpl when he went on a signal training course late in 1918. I cannot offer any comment on whether the promotion was sustained as the armistice intervened and he was demobilised shortly afterwards.

[shaner13]

Hi Ken,
he was finally promoted to paid lance corporal on the 13th september 1916,however he was now back in england with a training battalion and remained with them till end of war(he had suffered a knee injury,which kept flaring up).
I have noted he was made a paid corporal on 13th december 1918,so after the war ended, and was dicharged 8th march 1919.
He was a volunteer recruit who signed for duration of war.
I wonder why the army promoted him to corporal with his discharge imminent??
shane

[Redroger]

Seems rather like my father's "promotion" referred to in reply 2 above. My guess is that the Army was hoping that worthwhile people having been promoted would then stay in the service and make the army their full time career. Perhaps one of the many military specialists on this site can confirm or otherwise?

[shaner13]

My grandfather also recieved a very late promotion in ww2,to the rank of corporal also(just like his father who i originally posted this topic about) He was a proffesional soldier prior to ww2 in india for 7 years,and had remained a private.He had only just got out of army when britain declared war and was immediately called back in.
I wonder if a late promotion would effect any future pensions etc ?

shane

[Redroger]

I think that would depend on whether it was what is now described as a Final Salary Scheme. Historically, from the Army discharge record of my 2XGGF who was invalided out of the army in 1810, and the creative accountancy applied to his length of service with various units, e.g. joining before a unit was formed, and continuing in the unit 2 years after the muster roll shows he had left etc. it looks as though his record was massaged to ensure he had completed 10 years service, which I suspect though so far have not proved was needed to qualify for a pension.