Originally Posted by
airborne_artist
As a Pusser's brat I well remember the half-yearly promotions signal, and the importance of being near the telephone that morning.
I think A_A may have a clue here. The blue letter replaced the old system so there was no element of surprise as in days gone by.
I recall a New Year's Eve ball at Cottesmore - we used to return to work after Boxing Day - at midnight the band was quietened, the dancers stopped, and the statish produced the SIGNAL.
Promotions, honours and awards were all read out in front of both recipients and wives. One engineering officer, single, had retired early. He was ordered to return and he did, still sleepy, wearing his issue pyjamas and woolly dressing gown and slippers - panache if not style. He was then told of his promotion to sqn ldr and his posting too. In those days postings followed promotion with neither choice nor notice.
There was also perhaps discontinuity between the issue of medals post-WW2 and their effective resumption 30 or so years later.