NigG (#133),
... Also noticed on Wiki that the 'VR' lapel badges were discontinued because they were deemed to be divisive...
A bit odd - seeing that the badges were introduced for exactly that purpose: to distinguish the Volunteer Reservists and the Auxiliaries from the regulars who had been serving on the outbreak of war. Of course they were "divisive" - they were intended to "divide" !
.... The VRs tending to be looked down on by the Regulars and Auxiliaries... which was pretty surprising...
Don't remember anything like that. When everybody was a VR, there was no point in it ("when everybody's somebody, nobody's anybody"). The dwindling number of regulars, as a proportion of the increasing number of conscripts, made the "old sweats" a rarity, but there was no reason for them to consider themselves (or anyone else to consider them) superior on that account.
The Auxiliaries (who were lucky to keep their "A"s) might have considered themselves "a cut above the rest", but this may have been just an impression gained from the envy of the real Volunteers when
their "VR"s were taken away.
In a just world, it would have been perfectly simple to recruit all who volunteered before they were called up into the Volunteer Reserve, and give them "VR"s (
AFAIK, there was no recruitment into the Auxiliaries after war began). and simply enlist the rest into the "RAF" and have done with it. Did the Army and Navy agonise in this way ? I think not. But "just", the World ain't.
Danny.
PS: Gentlemen, today is the 10th !