On parade as usual. Busy all day. Went to Inwoods’ at night. Received stripe Tuesday¹².

1. “Stripe”:  this  was  a  single  stripe,  denoting  lance-­corporal;  a  full  corporal  got  two  stripes,  a  sergeant  three.  On this day ALL also sent his mother a post card to inform her of his promotion – see photo accompanying the 4 September entry. This  may have  been  promotion  to  ‘acting’,  ie  temporary,  rank  –  ALL  reverted  to  Private  on  arrival  in  France;  see  31  May  1916 – but see also the second footnote. ↩

2. In an interview given by ALL in 1976, he says “I am the only man in France who went through the war Lance Corporal acting Private with Lance Corporal’s pay.” It would appear that ALL’s later demotion from “acting” Lance Corporal may have been a mistake. ↩