Volunteer
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by
141Dial34
Why are they classed as volunteers?
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HeatherC
moderator
Can you tell us what date this is please? It's impossible to guess what "volunteer" means without knowing what this list refers to or seeing it in context.
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HeatherC
moderator
Looking it up, I see it's March 1919 and that this Unit was in the habit of putting a nominal roll of their officers at the end of the month and saying where each was or what each was doing (on leave, on a course, etc). I wonder if "Volunteer" here indicates that they were officers enlisted for the duration of the war only to distinguish them from the Regular officers? Note that a lot of them are from Units other than the one whose diary this is. This was because many of those Units had been reduced to cadres after the war ended and their officers were attached to other Units for administration.
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141Dial34
in response to HeatherC's comment.
Yes,only one name isn't familiar to me so they are long term men but this volunteer tag wasn't on last months list.Maybe they had finished their contract & decided to stay to the end?
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by
ral104
moderator, scientist
I think Heather's right about the distinction between regular and war-service officers. The 'T' before the rank of the volunteers must stand for 'Temporary'. The majority of officers were commissioned for the duration of the war, rather than on a permanent basis.
Posted