OLD ARMY TITLES
ADOPTED FROM ABROAD (By Air Mail—From Our Own Correspondent) LONDON, 27th February. The fact that we were never really a military nation, though almost always fighting somebody or other, is reflected in our army ranks. All our command titles, like most technical terms in forticatiou and military science, were adopted from abroad. King Edward’s assumption of the rank of Captain-Gene-ral of the H.A.C. is a reminder of the older terms long since discarded. Cap-tain-General was the old C —in —U, with a lieutenant-general of horse and a ser-geant-major general of foot under him. This explains an apparent anomaly which puzzled many wartime soldiersj not a litle. They could never make' outj how a lieutenant-general was higher up 1 the Brass Hat category than a major-, general, a lietenant being much below a major. The simple reason is that a : major-general is really a sergeant-major general, but, perhaps because it was too 1 cumbrous, part of the title has been, dropped and forgotten.
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Bibliographic details
Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXX, 27 March 1936, Page 2
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165OLD ARMY TITLES Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXX, 27 March 1936, Page 2
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