I always wondered...

[dwmosher]

Many moons ago I purchased a WW1 RAMC British officer's SD tunic at a small show in Atlanta. The name inside had been obscured by ink and I was able to clean it enough to identify the gentleman. From his ribbon bar, he had been awarded the DSO, MC, 14-15 star (w/ rose), war service and victory medal. I was able to determine that the DSO was gazetted on 3-6-18 as a "Birthday Award for France/Flanders". From his uniform he was a true "Contemptable" with 1 red and four blue service stripes and the rose on the 14-15 star. I was never able to find out anything about his MC, or anything else about him before I foolishly sold the tunic a few years ago. But I always wondered....His name was Major Ambrose Lorne Lockwood DSO MC.

Regards

Dave

[Tony]

Nice tunic Dave, shame it's gone.

He would have had the 1914 Star + bar and not the 14-15 star. The rosette on his tunic ribbon (a bar would have been sewn to the medal ribbon) denotes he was in range of enemy fire before 22.11.14 (I think). No bar on the 1914 Star would mean he was in a theatre of war between Aug. and Nov. 1914 but out of range.

I don't think you can find out what he did to be awarded the MC without consulting the battalion diary but being a medic he may well have saved a few men while under enemy fire. Just a guess though.

Tony

[Tony]

Does anyone know when officers stopped wearing cuff ranks?

Tony

[harribobs]

Does anyone know when officers stopped wearing cuff ranks?

Tony

It seems to have been a gradual thing throughout the war, i have seen photos of officers after the war, some still wearing cuff ranks some with shoulder ranks

chris

[Tony Farrell]

The reason for the adoption of the recognised modern style - i.e. shoulder-mounted rank insignia - during the Great War was due to snipers. The cuff insignia made officers conspicuous - along with (no doubt) riding boots, breeches and the carriage of a revolver. Thus, some officers adopted a less obvious approach - some going as far as to wearing suitably adorned ORs tunics (though lugging around a SMLE was presumably pushing it a bit).

Such practices were frowned upon by the officer corps, who saw it as a betrayal of ones' class - with not a little bit of 'wind up' creeping in. That said, due to the sheer number of casualties, it did make sense not to make ones' position totally obvious and the practice of subdued and relocated insignia gradually became accepted in the late stages of the war. Cuff insignia was obsolete by 1920.

Incidentally, the whole reason for the adoption of cuff insignia was to highlight rank comparability with the Royal Navy. This was due to inter-service confusion that transpired during the Boer War, when the two services found themselves (increasingly) operating alongside each other.