Brevet rank: some information

[Muerrisch]

Brevet, Honorary, Local or Temporary, rank: a collection of information from reputable British sources.

For convenience, Brevet henceforth abbreviated Bt. Local as L, Temporary as T. and Honorary as Hon. My editorial comments in [brackets] thus.

Queen’s Regulations 1873. Bt. field officers [major, lt. col., col.]doing duty with their regiments as captains to wear uniform according to their rank in the army; to do duty as field officers in garrison etc. [in context, army rank seems to that awarded by the Bt.]

Rank, Badges etc by Otley Lane Perry 1888. Bt. rank is permanent army rank as regards precedence but with pay of rank next below that indicated by the Bt. ….. [if I read this right, a captain with two brevet promotions would be paid as a major but ….]

Hon. Rank gives same advantages as enjoyed by Corresponding rank [ie equivalent Naval ranks] and Perry lists 17 appointments carrying Hon. Rank of Major, for example Chaplains 3rd class, Staff Paymaster

Queen’s regulations 1885. Agrees QR1873 and adds that captains holding Bt. rank as field officers are to perform regimental duties according to their regimental rank [in context, as captains]

Manual Military Law 1899. ……officers …… all alike are officers of HM land forces and have army rank as such, which may or may not be the same as their regimental rank ………….. [a corollary of this is that a Major, Bt. Lt Col doing duty on a Court Martial will outrank all Majors and below and therefore preside]

Royal Pay Warrant 1914. Substantive rank shall include all rank except army, brevet, honorary and local or temporary rank. [three points here 1. any comfortable thought that Bt. and army rank were the same is dispelled, 2. a following paragraph seems to suggest that regimental rank is the same as substantive rank, and 3. a reasonable working definition of substantive rank is ‘one that cannot be lost except by sentence of Court Martial’].

QM commissions were exactly that, and not combatant. QMs were not entitled to command mixed bodies of troops in action. They were eligible for Hon. Ranks as Lieutenant, with subsequent Hon. rises even to Lt Col. depending on length of service and merit. One well known example is QM & Hon Major Harry Yates, MC, 2RWF.

Bt. promotion may be given to captains[ after at least 6 years service], majors and lt cols for distinguished service [in the field or otherwise] [note that these are the only British brevet awards, unlike some other nations]

Kings Regulations 1914. adds to previous QR by noting that specially meritorious service may be recognised by accelerated promotion “usually by Bt.” Regular officers to take precedence over SR, who in turn take precedence over TF, of same nominal rank.

Bt. rank will not exempt an officer from taking the usual examinations for promotion [these exams differed according to arm of service]

Military Origins by Gordon 1971 is probably too “out of period” to be much use, he says little to disagree with the above on Bt. Rank and adds that Acting rank became Temporary rank after three months.

To summarise: Local and Temporary do appear to be synonymous, Brevet and Honorary are most definitely not synonymous, army rank and Bt. rank seem almost synonymous. I know that an officer doing a company commander’s job in an acting capacity was automatically given temporary promotion [and the rate for the job] after 30 days, and I know that the Army List used the same symbol both for temporary promotions and temporary commissions, so the only rank where we know what the asterisk means is 2Lt, in that this must mean Temporary commission.

One last thought, from studying RWF Army Lists 1895 to 1914. Promotion was by seniority but conditional on the ability to pass the exams, with small seniority adjustments made from time to time for less-than-obvious reasons and published in the London Gazette. I can find no instance where possession of a Bt. allowed an officer to queue-jump, although such an analysis is made difficult by the tendency for a fair few senior captains to have acquired a Bt. by the time they were near the top of the list. There are, however, examples of officers “parachuted in” to the regiment at Major rank, holding Bt. Lt col, and rising to lt col in the regiment before departing, with a Bt. colonelcy, to the staff. There seems to have been a mutual “deconfliction” by senior captains and senior majors, who could read a seniority list with an eye to possible further promotion. If one had little chance [there were only two lt col posts for regular officers in the whole regiment, with possibly a third for the SR battalion] then one could take the money and go on to half pay or pension.

After the war started, all bets were off, and many things changed ….. perhaps we could start to list them?

Please, if any errors detected, or Pals can add to this, I would be grateful.

[Charles Fair]

LB - very many thanks for this, very helpful.

In the absence of a reference before, I have used as my own working definition of substantive rank that it is the default i.e. that to which one reverts after acting, temporary and/or local ranks have been given up.

My grandfather at the time of High Wood on 15/9/16 was substantive Lt and acting Major, later that day after the CO was killed became Temp Lt-Col. He finished the war as Bt Major (and presumably was still a substantive Lt or Capt)

[Bob Coulson]

LB,

As with Charles, many thanks for this, will be very useful.

Bob.

[Guest Pete Wood]

Good one, LB

How did these ranks - local, temporary, honourary, acting, brevet etc - affect the next of kin's pension, in the event of an officer's death?

Was the pension paid on the substansive rank, or the 'higher' rank (assuming that the rank has been held for 30+ days)....??

[Muerrisch]

A part answer: Temporary rank held for thirty days most certainly qualified for the higher pension: I have a fully-documented case. You will not be surprised to learn War Office fought like stink to defraud the widow and orphans! They lost, thanks to the man's CO, his previous CO, and a Knight intervening. I wonder how many more marginal cases lost out?

[Stephen White]

LB

Many thanks for that,very informative posting.I've just bought a Regimental History (7th Dragoon Guards).I now understand what the awards are, in the "Honours and Awards" section in the back.

Stephen