On probation

I think I might be able to help Jenny Anderson [star letter, April issue].

It would appear from her letter that her great grandfather, James Anderson, was 17 when he joined the Reading Constabulary in 1881.

Bearing in mind that he was born in 1864 and tracing backwards from his seven months with the Kent Constabulary to the end of his service in the Scots Guards, James could well have been 17 (if not 16) when he was discharged from the Army. He must have volunteered for a defined period of time and, because of his age, possibly as a drummer boy subject to a probationary period in which either he or the Army could have chosen to end his service on completion of his probation.

In his case, the 83 days he served in the Scots Guards being 12 weeks minus one day, it is likely his probationary period was 12 weeks, the ‘minus’ day being that when either he joined or his discharge took effect.

That James almost certainly left the Guards by his own decision, not as the outcome of a poor service record, is indicated by the fact that two police forces were willing to take him on. His later history suggests that he was very much his own man, even at 17, and that it was by his own choice that he did not sign up long-term with the Scots Guards or Kent Constabulary.

My own experience of ‘ joining up’ in the Second World War suggests that, had James stayed with the Guards, he would have served for a specific period of years once his probationary 12 weeks had ended to his and the Army’s satisfaction. Sylvia Pick

Editor replies: Thank you for writing in, Sylvia, I think your solution makes a lot of sense and I have forwarded it on to Jenny.