Originally Posted by
gordontaos
Finally, as far as the "Major" thing goes, its about time to start calling him Mr., or Stan or whatever his first name is.
Bearing in mind that it was only mentioned that the 'gentleman' in question was a retired Major, we have not been told that he still uses his rank.
Its entirely up to you how you choose to address anyone, there is no law that says you have to be polite. A retired officer is perfectly entitled to continue to use his rank if he wishes to. The fact that a General chooses not to doesn't alter that. If you decide to address him as 'Mister' in order to be rude that's fine as long as you are intending to be rude. Same goes for first names bearing in mind that the 'gentleman' in question is at least 20 years older than Scotscop.
I was quite rude about Majors earlier on, but I'm in a position to be so and had a bit of a pop at passed over Majors doing dodgy staff jobs. There is another sort of Major. Ex-rankers. In some ways these guys have had a much harder fight to get to Major and with few exceptions it is their ceiling. An ex-ranker who achieved his majority has something to be proud of although some of them find it hard to let go of the Sergeant Major bit...
The 'Eathen in his idleness bows down to wood and stone,
'E don't obey no orders unless they is his own,
He keeps his side arms awful,
And he leaves them all about,
Until up comes the Regiment and kicks the 'Eathen out.
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