Lance-Constable - Revision history

Old Dickens: file clerk?

2014-05-16T03:53:30Z

file clerk?

← Older revision		Revision as of 03:53, 16 May 2014
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	'''Lance-Constable''' is the lowest rank that a member of the [[Ankh-Morpork City Watch]] can be, and where they all join unless by dint of some surpassing virtue such as [[Cheery Littlebottom]]'s then-potential abilities as a forensic expert or [[A.E. Pessimal]]'s ~~personal~~ talents as ~~a filing clerk~~.		'''Lance-Constable''' is the lowest rank that a member of the [[Ankh-Morpork City Watch]] can be, and where they all join unless by dint of some surpassing virtue such as [[Cheery Littlebottom]]'s then-potential abilities as a forensic expert or [[A.E. Pessimal]]'s talents as an accountant.

	Even [[Carrot]] began Watch life as a Lance-Constable. Well may it be said that each new recruit may well be carrying a Field Marshall's baton in his (or indeed, her) knapsack...		Even [[Carrot]] began Watch life as a Lance-Constable. Well may it be said that each new recruit may well be carrying a Field Marshall's baton in his (or indeed, her) knapsack...

User: 1 revision: Discworld import

2012-09-23T22:04:09Z

1 revision: Discworld import

← Older revision	Revision as of 22:04, 23 September 2012
(No difference)

86.177.214.186 at 18:39, 23 October 2010

2010-10-23T18:39:21Z

New page

'''Lance-Constable''' is the lowest rank that a member of the [[Ankh-Morpork City Watch]] can be, and where they all join unless by dint of some surpassing virtue such as [[Cheery Littlebottom]]'s then-potential abilities as a forensic expert or [[A.E. Pessimal]]'s personal talents as a filing clerk.

Even [[Carrot]] began Watch life as a Lance-Constable. Well may it be said that each new recruit may well be carrying a Field Marshall's baton in his (or indeed, her) knapsack...

==Annotation==

Lance-Constable is an unknown rank on [[Roundworld]]. To be Lance- something in uniform is to be a junior one. The lowest non-commissioned commanding rank is Lance Corporal - a one-stripe officer. A "real" corporal is a two-striper, and a sergeant has three stripes. So a Lance-Constable would be an under-constable, i.e. so low on the pecking order as to not get a peck at all. In the British Army the rank is an ''appointment'', not a ''promotion'' - so lacking in status that it becomes, as George McDonald Fraser remarked, a "thankless dogsbody job". McDonald Fraser should know: he was appointed lance-corporal four times, and busted back to Private three times, for various misdemeanours and infractions.

France follows the British model where its equivalent of a lance-corporal is the ''sous-caporal'', the "undercorporal". In the United States Army , the equivalent rank is ''private, first class'' - rather more positive, this is the alternative idea of the "superior private;" the US Marines use both Pfc. AND Lance-Corporal (this is also the idea current in the Japanese Army, incidentally).

[[Category:Discworld culture]]