Discharge from the British Army with immediate effect

[MichaelGab]

I have a question regarding discharge from the British Army. Generally, if you commit a crime while enlisted, you are liable to a variety of penalties, ranging from warnings to imprisonment, fines, or community service. However, in some cases, you can be expelled from Her Majesty's Army almost instantly.

In the latter case, I would like you to tell me about any unusual examples of people being expelled from the Army almost overnight, if you have any.

Edited Friday at 15:12 by MichaelGab

[ChrisKelly]

I can talk about discharges from the U.S. military, Persian Gulf War era.  Certainly, that's not your primary query, but I'm sure there may be some parallels.  Military discipline across time and places has some consistency.

 

Any discharge other than "full honorable" is considered punitive.  When I was on active service with 437th MSSQ/MPF [1992 - 1996], my outfit handled re-enlistments and separations.

 

Immediate discharges, or as the British might say, "releases", are usually for other than criminal offenses, such as maladaptive behavior, personal hardship [like the death of family member, especially the sole or primary income - earner], or medically/psychologically unfit for further service.

 

Malfeasants and misdemeanants who keep getting in trouble normally started with a one - way "talking to", then graduated to a letter of counseling [LOC].  A letter of reprimand [LOR] was a harsher and more formal LOC, and it usually generated an Unfavorable Information File [UIF], in which all the LOCs and LORs were kept.  This was done by name, and part of the individual's Field Personnel Records Group [FPRG], known colloquially as a "jacket" or "personnel file".  In my outfit, the third LOC, regardless of offense, was an automatic LOR with a UIF, and the administrative discharge process was soon underway [this being a discharge other than one ordered by a general court martial].

 

Offenses?  Anything under the sun.  The real point of military imprisonment is to send a message to the force, as well as act in the best interests of the integrity of the service.  To wit, "the sooner we part ways, the better off we'll both be".  

 

In some cases I saw, the military was willing to dispense with a general court martial, and effect a speedy release in order to turn the offender over to local, state and/or federal authorities for criminal [non - military] prosecution.

 

I probably didn't really answer your question, but I hope I helped.

[Gordon Craig]

MichaelGab,

I am not aware of any "immediate" discharge cases but it would be interesting to find one.  As you said, there are usually some sort of disciplinary charges awarded prior to a discharge from the services.  As per below.

Regards,

Gordon

 

Albert was so poorly behaved a sailor that after various periods of imprisonment including an occasion where he was convicted for 6 months of hard labour and prison for striking a superior officer, leaving him “dismissed” from the Navy and not joining the Royal Fleet Reserve like many men who would become recalled for service in 1914.

He was fortunate for his “Dismissal” to become a “Discharge SNLR” meaning Services No Longer Required, a more polite version of firing a Sailor, but left him unable to claim pay, pension or assistance.

 

[svapr]

We know from history that long-term service in any army was not easy; although it can be considered noble to serve almost two decades in one of them, it was difficult for an individual to avoid behavior for such a long period that would not leave its mark on his military career. This is confirmed by Jeffrey Auerbach in the book Imperial Boredom: Monotony and the British Empire, who wrote: “Although the story of the British Empire is often presented in terms of its military campaigns and heroic deeds of war, the mid-19th century shows us that soldiers spent most of their time sitting in tents, in the heat, dust, and little or no work. Many soldiers actually went through years of service without seeing a single battle. Combined with the invention of the repeating rifle, which increased the firepower of the army, battles became shorter, more one-sided, and increasingly described as banal. The increase in reports of long hours and boredom among soldiers suggests that soldiers were losing their ability to demonstrate bravery and physical fitness in combat. Many soldiers then became deeply disillusioned with military service. The well-known saying that war consists of months of boredom punctuated by moments of terror, a phrase first used during the First World War, has its origins in the British Empire army of the nineteenth century.”
A quick glance at the Regimental Defaulters books (lists of sinners in regiments) reveals that the most common offenses among soldiers were alcohol, gambling, or serious offenses such as desertion, murder, etc. As for the first-mentioned problem, i.e. alcohol, it was common for British soldiers to tamper with their daily rations of beer and later rum.
The Regimental Defaulters include cases of soldiers who were brought before the tribunal several times. And the greatest paradox; many of these punished soldiers received the Medal for Long Service and Good Conduct after serving the appropriate number of years.