LJ, cherry picking search results is desperate stuff, but in any case “...especially someone who fights” doesn’t exclude those who don’t fight. If you really must cite Google then try searching “soldier dictionary”. Guess what comes up in the top result box? “A person who serves in an army”. Anyway, I prefer to go with the Concise Oxford, as close to authoritative as I can get without subscribing to the OED. “Soldier: a person serving in or having served in an army.”
It is quite worrying to see otherwise sensible people scurrying about attempting to redefine such basic terms. It is exactly the sort of anti-intellectualism which Orwell and others pushed back against because of the danger it posed to society (think “2+2=5”).
Meanwhile, anyone in the RN or RNR who serves afloat has to complete shipboard firefighting and damage control training and would be expected to take a full part in such activity. That makes them a bit more than a ferry passenger who knows what a fire extinguisher looks like. You know this.
Last edited by Easy Street; 10th Aug 2020 at 01:03.