My mum is clearing up the estate of her father and aunt (they died within a few months of each other). While going through some old pix she found some photos of her great uncle serving in France during WWI. She always thought he was a sargeant, everybody called him sargeant, but he’s got 4 stripes on his sleeve in these photos. Does anybody know how stripes on a sleeve corresponds with rank in the UK army ca 1917?
Thanks,
I thought you’d already started a thread on this?
Anyway, I don’t know the answer but you might like to look at the British Army’s badges of rank site (it’s a bit slow, I’m afraid, but worth waiting for). If you have a look at the serjeant’s sleeve badge you will see that, from an old black and white photo, it might look like four chevrons of the darker colour, rather than three of the lighter colour. Of course, insignia vary from one regiment to another so YMMV.
If that’s not the explanation, I know that some regiments wear something called “arm of service” stripes, which are straight as opposed to V-shaped. I’m not sure what they signify, though.
The only poster I know of with British military experience is casdave, but he was in the Navy. He might know, though.
Do you know what branch of service or regiment he was with? Do you have a way to post the pic to your own website and provide a link for us to look at it?
There are two main possibilities for “four stripes” on the soldier’s arm in your photo.
Badge of rank: four large stripes (pointing upwards towards the shoulder) indicates a Staff-Sergeant in the British Army of the time. It is possible that he was “just” a Sergeant, but was temporarily “acting, unpaid” as a Staff.
Service stripes: if the stripes are quite small and located down at the bottom of the sleeve, they may indicate service time during WWI: if he joined in 1914, and the photo you have was taken in 1917, then he could have 4 service stripes (properly “chevrons”).
If you can photocopy the picture, try sending it to this bloke. I’m sure he can give you the final answer.