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Hello,

It's good to hear from you, my tuneful friend.

I am aware of the British custom of holding a commission in a ""home unit"" while serving with the RFC. I used the term ""transfer"" because Ball had given up his commission in infantry and carried his commission only in the RFC. Thus he was no longer ""seconded"". However, he transferred from unit to unit. So, you see, there can be a slight difference between ""seconding"" and ""transfer"".

I am trying to bring Albert Ball up to Featured Article status as part of my cleanup effort. At present, I am wrapping up all my WP projects, so that I leave no mess behind. After that I don't know...the assessment rules of the WP game make for a game I feel is not worth playing, and being only a mere writer among all the code monkeys is wearing. And I do have a final draft of a novel to work upon, and the concept of another....

But, as I said, good to hear from you.

  

My point was simply that while one source may say ""transferred"", and another ""seconded"" there is in practical terms no real difference between what happened in either case, and hence no need to either edit or revert an edit to switch beween the terms. ""Transfer"" is possibly the clearest term for modern readers, although original sources generally prefer ""seconded"" when they talk about transfering between branches of the service rather than specific units. Never heard of anyone ""giving up a commission"" in the army to join the RFC - it wasn't a separate service until after Ball's death so this just doesn't make sense. Never mind - not as if any of this matters, it was just a thought.
Sorry to hear you are getting WP burnout - happens to us all sooner or later I fear. Good luck with the novel. Is it based on your own service years?
Best regards   "