Great War Anomally

[aardvaark the carpeted]

From corporal to CSM inside 5 minutes.

IIRC in one of his letters home Wilfred Owen describes his sudden promotion to Coy Comd and benefiting from an old and experienced CSM of 19.

 

[Archimedes]

He was promoted to Lieutenant (temporary) on 13 September 1915, and is recorded as being with the 13th Service Battalion of the Rifle Brigade in the May 1916 edition of the Army List (column 1558b, if anyone's mad enough to look), and remained with that battalion until his move to the Coldstream Guards, as per above.

So in answer to @mnairb's original thought, he was promoted to Temporary Lt, but subsequently transferred to the CG as a 2nd Lt; he was the most senior 2nd Lt in 2nd Bn, and second-most senior in the regiment.

 

[FourZeroCharlie]

That probate page is interesting. Five men of rank are mentioned, all Lieutenants, but spelled with lower case "l". Was that because 1st and 2nd Lieutenants are differentiated that way, or all ranks spelled with lower case initial letter?

Simple enough - these are details from the (then) Civil Court of Probate: whoever compiled it had not a clue about 'Lieutenant' or 'lieutenant'.