HC Deb 25 May 1908 vol 189 cc726-7
SIR ARTHUR BIGNOLD (Wick Burghs)

To ask the Secretary of State for War if he will say whether a colonel retired prior to the signing of the warrant of 1887, having obtained the rank of colonel after four years service as lieutenant-colonel, is in future to be credited as having served as colonel and to be described in the official Army Lists as colonel, such officer being entitled to the description of substantive colonel.

(Answered by Mr. Secretary Haldane.) Presumably the Question refers to officers who obtained the rank of colonel after four years in command of a battalion and retired at once on lieutenant-colonel's rates. These officers never were employed as colonels, and consequently cannot be shown as having been so employed. The fact, however, that they hold the rank of colonel is shown in all places where their names appear in the Army List.