I’m re-reading Sharpe’s Company – always one of my favourites since it introduces Hakeswill, such an excellent grotesque and yet utterly believable villain. Anyway, there is a line in it where it just says “Ensign Sharpe became Lieutenant Sharpe.” I know the Rifles didn’t have Ensigns as they didn’t carry colours, but he still must have climbed to First Lieutenant at some point before Sharpe’s Rifles. Do you have any thoughts about how it happened? Was it just a sort of administrative promotion when he was forced to become the quartermaster? Or did he perform some feat that merited it?

In a similar vein, I notice that both Sharpe and Harper go from Private (Rifleman) to Sergeant without passing through Corporal (which is ironic given the TV production’s decision to make Sharpe the leader of a band of corporals). How common was it for this to happen?
Andrew