Honorary Lieutenant?

[KiteRunner]

My great-great-aunt's husband Phil(l)ip Woodrow was an Honorary Lieutenant in the Lincolnshire Regiment when he died in Cairo in 1898. On the 1891 census he is a non-commissioned officer. What exactly does "Honorary Lieutenant" mean? It seems that somebody else was made one in place of him after his death (another non-commissioned officer). Is it the same as Acting Lieutenant?

[Olde Crone Holden]

Kate

I have had a quick google and it either means they were transferred from a Volunteer force, (thus the honorary status) or it is an alternative description for a second lieutenant in the Army.

I don't think it is quite the same thing as Acting Lieutenant, which implies a temporary stopgap (to me, anyway).

OC

[KiteRunner]

I should think it would be the second one then, as he was a career soldier. Thanks.

[Christine in Herts]

An "Acting" rank usually means you've been put on a possibly-temporary promotion to deal with a gap in the necessary hierarchy. If you do well, and no-one else comes along with a stronger entitlement, then the "acting" can become "substantive" (I think that's the right term for that progression).

"Honorary" is associated with not getting the money for a post, or with being given a rank as a mark of respect for work done, but without it carrying the associated authority, perhaps?

Christine

[dicole]

My great grandfather was an "Honorary Captain" in the Australian RAE. It seems that in Australia, the term honorary was an indication that he was not "regular army", I assume because he did not attend any military training school and came into the Engineers as a qualified builder and surveyor. Earlier, in the NSW Corps of Engineers, he was designated "quartermaster" another indication of the same.

Di