Entering the Royal Horse and Royal Field Artillery, 1900

[FrancesH]

Apologies for this being, obviously, pre-war, but I'm trying to trace someone's earlier career. The Gazette announced on 7 August 1900 that Donald Hume had been 'nominated by the authority of Universities and Colleges' and would become a Second Lieutenant. What does this mean, please chaps?

 

[FROGSMILE]

31 minutes ago, FrancesH said:

Apologies for this being, obviously, pre-war, but I'm trying to trace someone's earlier career. The Gazette announced on 7 August 1900 that Donald Hume had been 'nominated by the authority of Universities and Colleges' and would become a Second Lieutenant. What does this mean, please chaps?

 

It was a specific category of commission, known for short as a ‘university commission’.  It was for those who attended university with the express intent of joining the army at the end of their course.  Part of the terms and conditions was attendance at the university officer training corps (senior division) throughout their degree course.  The commission was backdated for seniority (and thus reckoning for future promotion) so that they wouldn’t be disadvantaged alongside their contemporaries in age who joined directly rather than through university, but without any claim upon pay or allowances granted to those actually in service with a unit.  In this case seniority would have dated from 26 May 1900.

Edited 9 October , 2023 by FROGSMILE

[FrancesH]

Oh thank you Frogsmile! Ive not come across this before. I don't think there's any way of checking which university it was, and it probably doesn't really matter...

[FROGSMILE]

39 minutes ago, FrancesH said:

Oh thank you Frogsmile! Ive not come across this before. I don't think there's any way of checking which university it was, and it probably doesn't really matter...

I don’t know if there might be something in the relevant army list about his means of entry, but I doubt that it will say which university.  The war office kept a list of ‘approved’ universities and of course there weren’t legions of them as there are now.  From memory only that was fairly early on after the scheme was introduced, I think fairly close to the turn of the century.  There’s a good paper here that you can usually access via your Google address if you have one (there are other ways): https://www.jstor.org/stable/42851337

Edited 9 October , 2023 by FROGSMILE

[FrancesH]

Oh thank you! I've found quite a few useful articles through jstor, a valuable facility!

[FrancesH]

Have now read the article -- very interesting. Mind-blowing that 1971 most public-school dominated cohort in 160 years!

[FROGSMILE]

1 hour ago, FrancesH said:

Have now read the article -- very interesting. Mind-blowing that 1971 most public-school dominated cohort in 160 years!

I’m glad it was useful Frances, I’m not sure if it covered what you were looking for, but I’m still seeing what other mentions there might be. 

[FrancesH]

It's fine, don't worry too much. I just like to tie up loose ends even though they don't actually relate to the principal person I'm interested in. And look, bonus, you explained the universities thing and I enjoyed reading that article.