War Diaries Talk

Title abbreviation confusion

  • SarahtheEntwife by SarahtheEntwife

    http://www.operationwardiary.org/subjects/standard/52d056993ae74026a30696f3.jpg

    In the last paragraph of this page, several men with what looks like a title of "Dr." join or are transferred -- Higgs, McCallan, Bickers, and Clarke. Dr. would make sense for an ambulance unit, but what rank should I tag them as? Or is this an abbreviation for something else? The only thing that looks close is Drummer or maybe Sr for Sergeant.

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  • ral104 by ral104 moderator, scientist

    Ha! Just replied on the comment 😄

    I think it's Dv. Short for Driver.

    As they're from the Army Service Corps, this pretty much fits.

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  • SarahtheEntwife by SarahtheEntwife

    Thanks!

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  • David_Underdown by David_Underdown moderator

    it should really be Dvr, all the official rank abbreviations were at least 3 letters I think

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  • ral104 by ral104 moderator, scientist

    I wonder whether individual adjutants went off piste sometimes. I've definitely come across Dv. in several diaries now. Genereally not ASC ones, though, so perhaps it was just unfamiliarity with that particular rank.

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  • cyngast by cyngast moderator

    I've come across Dr. in a couple of Field Ambulance diaries, which I always read as Doctor until I realize that the doctors were officers and the Dr. person usually has a service number. So I've tagged them as Driver.

    In reference to David's comment above, I've never seen Lieutenant abbreviated as anything other than Lt.

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  • ral104 by ral104 moderator, scientist in response to cgastwein@aol.com's comment.

    That's a good point, although I feel as if I have come across a three letter abbreviation for Lieutenant somewhere...Lnt, or similar. Whatever it was, it completely threw me. I've certainly never seen it as anything other than Lt. anywhere else.

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  • David_Underdown by David_Underdown moderator

    I was really thinking of the abbreviations of other ranks, offiers are (as ever) a little different.

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  • ral104 by ral104 moderator, scientist

    Ah ha! Thanks, David.

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