request for information.

[retired_bubblehead]

Morning all.
I'm going to prefice this request with an introduction, as I'm new here. I found out about this list from an authors board for the Baen publishing company. I had entered a question there, and someone there suggested I go here. Yes, I'm a Yank. Colonial, what-ever. Worse still, I'm a retired squid, bubblehead. (that's submarine service to you) Worse yet, the only personal dealings I've had the the British forces is with HMS Trafalger in the mid ninties and some war games against various HMS vessels at times in the eighties and nineties.
I realize that just by benifit of the above data, I'm a ****** to half of the guys on this list. (at least to judge by the stuff I've seen as I skimmed this list.) Oh ******* well. I don't need to be told it again, got it, don't waste your electrons telling me so.

I further realize that this is going to seem like a stupid question. But I need the info for a novel I'm working on.
Does the British army stil have 'batmen', what we in the Navy called Stewards? That is to say, some enlisted guy who, in baracks takes care of the officers kit, and acts as an aid'de camp, and in the field acts as a body guard/gofer? If so, at what rank would it be resonable to see one asigned?
All of this is in aid of a Novel that one of your guys (a civilian named Chris Nuttal, works up in the U of Edinburough, and has NO military experience) and I are writeing about a multinational force.
Thanks for the time.
William Lehman

 

[thefootman]

I remember when if you fell over board you got wet and had to either swimm back and climb on board or if you could not the crew would help you back onto the ship boat or which ever vessel it was.

You then also get wet when it rained and the deck got slippery. there were quite a few moments when everybody just laughed. it was a funny old show though.

 

[Ali_Gee]

I was a Batman, got caught fighting and was busted back down to Robin, gutted

 

[smartascarrots]

r_b, there are no batmen in the British Army any longer. The usual term when they did exist was 'Officer's Servant', batmen being reserved for the soldier who did a similar job for the RSM.

If you're looking for the modern day setup, the closest you might get would be the platoon radio op, who might see to cooking the bosses food while he's away at an O Group. You're also just as likely to find a platoon commander doing the same for his signaller while that man sorts out platoon comms. In barracks, you'd only find soldiers doing officers kit in preparation for public duties and in return for substantial liquid compensation. Nobody wants to go on parade with the boss man looking like a sack of hammers. If it happens as a matter of routine, though, the officer is likely to find himself in the Adjutant's office explaining himself to an unsympathetic audience. The master/servant relationship, has gone out the window long since, you see.

Don't know if it's any use to the plot of the book, but the Pakistani Army still have servants just as in the days of the Raj, and will even allocate servants to officer guests. They're quite often from families with proud traditions of service going back generations and are quite handy-looking lads besides. Passing through one of their camps, I was allocated a Chitrali who looked like Abdul Abulbul and acted like The Admirable Crichtn. And he made a mean fruit punch.

 

[California_Tanker]

When I was reading the Rules of the Mess at Bovington two years ago, there were still instructions for conduct of batmen, though I did get the impression that it was more of personally retained person, as opposed to a military troop assigned to the duty.

NTM

 

[LongJohnSilver]

Im not to sure but I seem to recall that the Guards have them. Maybe some Guards chaps out there could enlighten you further.