British Corporals & the game of Golf

[badbob]

Did ya ever notice that British Corporals appear to be much older than the average American Corporal?

I was watching the opening ceremony of the Ryder Cup this morning.

For you Non-Golfers out there, the Ryder Cup is tournament held every two years; paring the best European professional Golfer’s against the best American Golfer’s. This year it’s being held in England. It’s a 3-day match that uses team and individual scoring to select the winner. For the golf fanatic, It’s some of the best Golf you’ll see played by the worlds best Golfers.

I’m a Golfer, I live on Golf Course, when I’m not working, I’m playing Golf, when I’m not playing Golf, I’m watching someone else play Golf.

I’m not a good Golfer, but I’m not a hacker either, and at my age (55) unfortunately, I’m at the top of my game, it’s as good as it’s ever gona get.

Like some of my combat skills, with age, I’ve lost most of the power in my swing, which has forced me to develop finesse in my short game, which ironically, has really improved my overall game. Sometimes getting older can be good thing.

Back to British Corporals:

During the Ryder Cup ceremony there were a couple of interesting observations that struck me.

1. There was a platoon of British soldiers, probably British Marines, in battle dress green uniforms, I noticed that the Corporals looked to be all in their 30’s, they all looked much older then our average CPL’s.


2. I wasn’t aware that the British Army also uses the Lance Corporal rank., and they also looked older then our average LCPL’s.


3. The Scottish Royal Bagpipe marching band, in Dress Blues and wearing kilts (I still can’t get use to soldiers wearing skirts) played the Marine Corps Hymn on bagpipes and it sounded really good. But I’m not sure if they were doing so to honor the USMC, or they actually have adopted the Hymn for their own Corps.

So, is it harder to get rank in the British Army? And if so, is it because they have less of a turnover than in our Armed Forces?

At any rate this is my observation for the day,

Back to Golf.

Simper Fi,
Bob

[gunnyg]

I, too, became interested in the origin of the lance corporal rank, but just its USMC history; but then later, after many inquiries, I managed to find a bit more info on the Net regarding this.

The lance corporal rank goes back at least to the Indian wars of the 1800s in America. At various times, the lance corporal existed in the Corps together w/lance sergeants, believe it or not.

The lance rank generally denoted temporary rank, although in the early 1900s the Marine Corps authorized the single-stripe chevron (for blues only) for L/Cpls. At that time, there was no PFC in the Marine Corps, and the lance rank officially went out of existence when the single stripe was assigned to Pfc in the late 1920s, the PFC rank having come into existence in the Corps late in WW I, after it was approved for the Army the previous year; however, some historians claim that the informal appointment of lance rank continued well into the 1930s. The ranks of Technical and master sergeant were also originally titles of rank used by the army.

Not too much problem digging up all of the above info, but history of lance rank for armed forces is a bit more scarce. Apparently a lance corporal originally was a dismoumted lancer (for whatever reason), who was assigned as an assistant NCO in the infantry, as lancers were considered a cut above grunts.
In time, the lance rank became a temporary rank. In the recent past, and today, various British and Europeon armies maintain the raks of lance corporal/sergeant, lance grenadiers, et.

What has this to do w/the age of British lance corporals? Not much, but just thought I would run this by ya.

Of course, we all know that our present L/Cpl USMC came into existence in 1959 w/the then new enlisted rank structure which added the two (e-8/e-9) paygrades, as well as added the L/Cpl, restored the old GySgt, MGySgt--but did away w/the T?Sgt rank.

OK, I'll shut up now.

Yeah, they always did look a bit long in the tooth.

DickG

[3BadgeMarine]

BoB,Watching the 'Ryder Cup' opening shots this evening in the UK,I did observe the pipes and drums, the Highland Band was not of a Highland Regiment but some band hired for the occasion
I think you will find that all Highland Regiments do not participate in anything non Regimental. Now for the age of some of the NCO's
promotion in some of the specialist branches of the various services the RM being one, specialist branches have a certain Rank structure only allowing a certain ammount of NCO's, So in the Royal corps it's what we call the 'dead mans shoes' so has the man at the top 'drops of the perch'so the next in line moves up the ladder,that is of course if he has the right qualifications for promotion,at one time you had to have at least 5 years under your belt before making corporal that is of course if you wanted promotion??,I myself spent 25 years in the same rank (Marine) which is of course equivelent to your Pfc, I was considered for promotion but turned it down , and found that being A MARINE
was just the life for me I could do what I damm well wanted within reason of course.Cheers jr