Abbreviation

[Roger Wagstaffe]

On my father's war records there is the abbreviation W/Bdr. I understand the Bdr is bombardier but am unable to trace the prefix W. Help please

[ainslie]

 Could it be a badly-written L, for Lance?  A for Acting seems less likely.
A

[Roger Wagstaffe]

Definitely W. He went through Gunner then L for Lance then U/A which is also a mystery then W all with the suffix BDR

[ainslie]

Unpaid and Acting, for U/A.  Could W mean something like War, which did relate to commissioned officers, as War Substantive, I believe?

[Roger Wagstaffe]

U/A NAKED sense but not sure about W. Thanks

[hallmark]

"War substantive" Brigadeer.??


https://www.ancestry.co.uk/boards/topics.Military.uk.britarmy/1700.2.1/mb.ashx

[ainslie]

That old post on Ancestry confused Brigadier, a senior officer, with Bombardier, an NCO in the Royal Artillery.

[MaxD]

The W in front of ranks during the war was - wait for it - the abbreviation for War.  This was distinguishing between those men whose rank (in this case Bombardier - two stripes in the Royal Artillery) was temporary and only held for wartime.  A regular soldier promoted to two stripes would simply be Bdr.

MaxD