Читать книгу The Imperial Aircraft Flotilla - Margaret Hall - Страница 5

Values: £. s. d. = Pounds, shillings and pence. There were twenty shillings to the pound, and twelve pence in a shilling. A ha’penny = a half penny. A ‘guinea’ was one pound and one shilling (£1 1s 0d) or twenty-one shillings.

Luckily for those of us with little facility for figures, during 1914–18 both the UK and the English-language overseas press habitually expressed subscriptions for aircraft in terms of the sterling production costs for reconnaissance or fighter aeroplanes. These were £1,500 or £2,250 respectively for roughly the first two years of the war, and subsequently £2,500–£2,700 for fighting scouts (equipped with guns but also used for reconnaissance) and fighters, or fighter-bombers. The cost of seaplanes was generally given as £3,500. I have relied on statements of cost and subscription totals expressed in sterling whenever possible.

Civilian Honours: The Order of St. Michael and St. George was designed for service to the crown overseas and was particularly associated with the Colonial Service. In ascending order the ranks are: companion (CMG), knight commander (KCMG), and knight grand cross (GCMG). It ranked in precedence between the two Indian orders—the Order of the Indian Empire (CIE; KCIE; GCIE) and the Star of India (CSI; KCSI; GCSI). The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire was established in 1917 by George V in order to reward civilian service in the war, and consists of member (MBE), officer (OBE), commander (CBE), knight commander (KBE), and knight grand cross (GBE).1 The Royal Victorian Order is in the sovereign’s gift—in descending order, knight grand cross (GCVO), knight (KCVO), commander (CVO), lieutenant (LVO) and member (MVO).

Names: I have used the version most commonly employed at the time by the English-language press and in British official papers, generally indicating variants and alternative spellings, or later changes, the first time that name occurs in the main body of the text. The exceptions to this general rule are those former place-names so well known to an English-speaking readership as to make clarification superfluous (country examples: Abyssinia; Ceylon; Burma; Siam; cities: Peking; Bombay; Calcutta; Madras). Johor in Malaysia was then usually rendered as ‘Johore’ in the press of the day and in Colonial Office papers dealing with the Malay states, and I have kept to this usage, although I well understand that it can invite confusion with that other Johore in India.

1 Kirk-Greene, ‘On Governorship and Governors in British Africa’