Ron & I were having a discussion the other day about demob pay. I said I remembered receiving extra pay because I had served overseas whereas he thought that the extra pay was purely normal pay accumulated over so many weeks and included leave pay until the actual date that I was discharged. Does anyone know what the extra pay was for serving abroad and how and where we would we have changed the money we received as, for example, Lira or Drachmas into Sterling ? Many thanks Larry Fox
Larrry - very odd question as I recall that we were paid three pence per day for overseas service and another three pence for front line stuff - and paid weekly - VERY weakly ! The extra money at demob was the post war credits I believe which in my case added up to around 22 pounds - a new tailor made suit cost me 25 guineas with the tailor sitting cross legged on his table - and very reluctant to even think about allowing me a suit length as it was close to the end of his stock ... you had money to come home with ? .....any Schillings I had - I gave away to one of the lads before leaving the regiment - as always came home broke ! Cheers
Ron & I were having a discussion the other day about demob pay. I said I remembered receiving extra pay because I had served overseas whereas he thought that the extra pay was purely normal pay accumulated over so many weeks and included leave pay until the actual date that I was discharged. Does anyone know what the extra pay was for serving abroad and how and where we would we have changed the money we received as, for example, Lira or Drachmas into Sterling ? Many thanks Larry Fox Hi Larry, Demobilised servicemen who had been on active overseas duty got an additional period of paid leave on top of the standard eight weeks that all men (and women) received on leaving the Forces. For the Army and RAF, it was one day of leave for each month of completed foreign service. Best, Alan
Larry It's good to see you posting here again I remember you & I talking about LIAP & Demob pay and I may have even suggested to you that you post your query here, either way, I'd like to join in with a few queries of my own. For those who don't know it, Larry & I were in the same unit for almost two years and post war he & I often meet up to chew the fat about our lives during WW2. We both kept diaries, he was clever enough to keep hold of all of his, and his memorabilia box includes a complete set of the war years. Getting back to the original query about demob pay, I find that my own memory is a complete blank with regard to my final pay and despite having a full set of records, matters concerning pay and how it was made up, plays no part at all in the paper trail. Yes I know that we received Post War credits but I have no paperwork at all to show how much I received and how it was calculated. At our last meeting, Larry and I were actually discussing two aspects of pay, namely pay received when we came home on LIAP and our final pay we got our demob. As I have no paper trail, I have to rely on my memory and calculated guesswork. Starting with the LIAP query, before leaving my unit in Italy, I would guess that on my last pay parade I would have been given sufficent pay to cover me for a month in the UK. Question No.1: I guess this would have been in Lira, when and where would I have changed it into Sterling ?, someone must know ? Question No.2: I know that part of my final pay included some Postwar Credits but as to how much I have no idea. What I suppose I'm looking for is chapter & verse on how this pay was calculated while we were in the forces and in particular how any cash was calculated for those of us that were "up front" On impulse, I went to my late brother Mick's story on the BBC Archives and noted his remark on the subject : When at last I was demobbed in l946, I received the magnificent sum of £64 Gratuity, £4O Post-War Credits, £36 for 67 days' leave pay and £lO Ration Allowance! With this total of £l5O when I married my darling Sylvia on 6th November l946, we started our married life together. BBC - WW2 People's War - Sgt.Major Mick Goldstein, Royal Fusiliers and Jewish Brigade Bearing in mind that Mick ended his Army career as a Sgt.Major it seems a fairly pitiful sum for so many years of service, doesn't it ? Ron
Question No.2: I know that part of my final pay included some Postwar Credits but as to how much I have no idea. What I suppose I'm looking for is chapter & verse on how this pay was calculated while we were in the forces and in particular how any cash was calculated for those of us that were "up front" Hi Ron, Perhaps it would be useful first to clarify what 'post-war credit' was. Its full name was really 'post-war tax credit.' From the beginning of January, 1942, the Inland Revenue had been withholding a small amount of each serviceman's pay packet as a sort of compulsory wartime savings program. On demobilisation this money was returned to the serviceman. So the amount withheld depended on the rate of pay. For instance, a private with three years' war service would receive 27 pounds 7 shillings and sixpence. Best, Alan
My dad only mentioned pay once to me, this is what I recorded. As I look back there were thousands of us ripped off with our pay…. We were out in the field you was…. Couldn’t draw any…. Anyway it was no f...ing good to us anyway… nowhere to spend the bloody stuff. A lot of records were lost in any case so they didn’t put it down in your pay book. There were times you didn’t draw any money cos you couldn’t and any way there was no money to give you. I can’t remember getting any back pay. Cheers Paul
Gents Thanks for your feedback so far. I've just remembered that apart from my pay & Postwar Tax Credits I did receive an additional large sum of money a few months after returning to civvie street, as the link below will soon show. BBC - WW2 People's War - Army Ration Allowance
