« Reply #7 on: Monday 27 July 20 23:59 BST (UK) »
Several decades ago, I socially met an RAF pilot, he did tell me his rank, but the only thing I now recall about that is that he had "eleven years seniority". The other smidge of information I remember is that he was upset that he had been asked to pay his "mess allowance", which had built up to a tidy sum, due to his putting alcohol onto his "tab"
It’s not quite the same thing I’m afraid and I’m positive that he was referring to his Mess Bill, which was/is where all alcohol consumption is tabbed and then paid for monthly. It can build up to eye watering amounts when a man has a little too much to drink and becomes garrulous and generous by equal measures. I spent a 2-year tour of duty at an RAF Station whilst an Army officer and I found them noticeably less disciplined/strict when it came to such matters. I do not say this as a matter of inter service rivalry but just as an observation of the cultural differences that I experienced.
Thanks for the insight Frogsmile.
Ref inter service rivalry - it's there when needs be, but otherwise the three disciplines are all family. marching in step with each other.
I’m glad to have been of some small assistance.
As for inter service matters, I did find the experience very strange. It reinforced in my mind just how important immersive cultural indoctrination is in a military institution.
I met my first veteran soldier in the mid 1950s. I was dumbounded when I heard one of his army stories. His army unit were packed like sardines into a ship being conveyed to fight in the Korean War (1950-1953). Every soldier was allowed up on deck for fresh air and exercise for one hour each per day. Men spent their time below deck playing a game of cards and gambling with matchsticks (illegal to gamble with money in those days). Halfway across the ocean gambling with matchsticks became rather tame and gambling with pennies was more exciting. Unfortunately my fellow office worker was discovered and was sent down into the bilges (not the hold) where they stayed until the ship returned to England. I was astonished that they didn't accompany their regiment onto the battlefield. He spent a year in the army glasshouse and about ten years later in the 1960s I saw the film "The Hill" which showed exactly what our army prisoners had to endure.
Aberdeen: Findlay-Shirras,McCarthy: MidLothian: Mason,Telford,Darling,Cruikshanks,Bennett,Sime, Bell: Lanarks:Crum, Brown, MacKenzie,Cameron, Glen, Millar; Ross: Urray:Mackenzie: Moray: Findlay; Marshall/Marischell: Perthshire: Brown Ferguson: Wales: McCarthy, Thomas: England: Almond, Askin, Dodson, Well(es). Harrison, Maw, McCarthy, Munford, Pye, Shearing, Smith, Smythe, Speight, Strike, Wallis/Wallace, Ward, Wells;Germany: Flamme,Ehlers, Bielstein, Germer, Mohlm, Reupke