[QUOTE]He then said that he was military, as were all his companions and showed me his ID. I said that it had no service number on it.
He then said that 'my dear boy, when one hits 2 stars and above, they don't bother with the number!'
[QUOTE]
That was indeed the position in the 80s and earlier, although I believe it was officers of gp capt rank and above who were not required to use their service number, and it was not shown on ID cards. I think it all changed with the introduction of the check digit (letter!), the stripping out of admin support in the early 90s and the move towards having all the personnel records on the new admin computer.
The London Gazette was not showing service numbers for gp capts and above as recently as 2015 (I haven't needed to look since then...).