"Buying Out" of a Commission

[meekhcs]

Morning Everyone

Is there a way of finding out if someone was bought out of a commission in the Army prior to WW2?
Edited - If so where would I look, and would the person still have an Army Record?

All I have is a name and date of birth and Family heresay!

[Mick Loney]

Sally, to buy yourself out, you first have to have enlisted, so there should be enlistment/service records for the person somewhere.
This should state the reason for his discharge

[meekhcs]

Thanks for the reply

He was born in 1913 so the earliest he would have enlisted would have been 1931 so I realise there may be records for him via the usual channels of paying £30 and waiting

Has anyone had come across this before and how have you solved the issue?

I have checked newspapers, including the Gazette, and Ancestry and FMP. Real problem is I don't know whether the story is actually true, and at the moment I don't wish to pay to trace records that may not exist.

By 1939 he had joined the Police Force, but again his records are not online.
.
I will ask the question on the WW2 Forum

[AdrianBruce]

If you do mean a commission, i.e. a commission as an officer, as distinct from just buying himself out of the Army as an ordinary soldier, then you may find that he would have been Gazetted as a second lieutenant (presumably). I say "may" because in theory anyone receiving a commission should appear in the London Gazette, but if he bought himself out very quickly after commissioning then I'm guessing that bureaucracy might have cancelled the Gazetting - but that's just a wild guess in my part. Of course, even if they are in the Gazette, the name might not be sufficiently unique to be recognisable as your John Smith rather than someone else's.

Of course, Murphy's Law, as I suggest, might mean that they really did buy themselves out of the Army, but they were only a member of the rank and file, an enlisted man, but not an officer, and the story got slightly twisted. In that case, you really are dependent on the MoD's records.

[meekhcs]

Thanks Adrian

I have posted the query on the WW2 Forum and after several conversations I have realised that I have used "commission" in the wrong sense! Sorry everyone!

I have searched the Gazette and newspapers at FMP

If the story is true I think he was definitely rank and file, and the "Guards" were mentioned.

I am in the process of checking the Guards records on FMP, especially the Coldstream as apparently they recruited heavily in the Somerset area.

The person I am searching for is William Frank Smith ( ) born 1 June 1913 in Southampton but very quickly moved to the Cross Rifles pub in Bridgwater Somerset, where his parents remained all their lives.

In the 1939 census erecords he was already a Police Constable at Eastcott Rd Station, Swindon, Wilts and he remained in the Force in Wiltshire for the remainder of his working life.

I have emailed Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre as they hold some local Police Records to see if his are included.

Will update if I find anything else

[meekhcs]

I had a reply from the Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre this morning.

"Thank you for your email. Unfortunately, I haven’t had any luck. We do have a Wiltshire Constabulary collection, but there seems to be a gap in our holdings around the date that you are looking for. We have extensive records from 1839-1926 & again from the 1950s-80s. I looked at the census & couldn’t find any of the constables listed at this Swindon station, which makes me think that a volume has been lost at some point. I am sorry that I cannot help you on this occasion."

Thank you Everyone, I am going to park this for now as it something that sidetracked me from my present research after a Family conversation!