I'm up to October 1941 in Colville's Fringes of Power. At this point, he's left his position as Churchill's privy secretery to serve in the RAF as an enlisted man. There's lots to chew on in his account of training at Cambridge:
When not on guard I could escape to dine with friendly dons at Trinity and other colleges, though there were those who looked askance at anything so common as an A.C.2 at the High Table.Posted by Ben Brumfield at August 6, 2006 08:34 PMI set that right on discovering that Bachelors of Arts in the armed forces could be admitted to the degree of Master of Arts for a fee of £1. When I duly presented myself in the Senate House, the Vice Chancellor announced in Latin (using the old pronunciation) that I was the first man ever to be admitted to that degree in the uniform of the Other Ranks of His Majesty's forces. So I acquired the right to dine at the Trinity High Table free of charge four times a year and presumably still can.
The question I have about this is what are the "Other Ranks of His Majesty's forces?" The Air Force, one presumes, so what are the normal ranks? Navy? Army?
Posted by: Sara at August 7, 2006 11:31 AMAh, so he basically found a loophole -- no one would have expected an enlisted man to have a bachelor's. I suppose before this time if you were well educated you were automatically an officer. In fact, the context for Ben's quote was Churchill being astonished that Colville had to join the RAF as an enlisted man. Churchill's actual response was something along the lines of "but you won't be able to take your man!," assuming that all gentleman still took servants with them into war.
Posted by: Sara Brumfield at August 7, 2006 02:09 PM