Staff Sergeant or Female Staff Sergeant? Comptroller-General, General or Mr Comptroller-General? Between the increasing number of women in the fire service and the new rank of Comptroller-General, the editorial team at Emergency Information gives an update.
Firstly, there is only one piece of legislation governing the ranks and titles of firefighters, namely the Order of 8 April 2015, as amended, in particular by the memorandum of 4 April 2017, signed by Prefect Jacques Witkowski, Director-General of Civil Protection and Crisis Management.
Corporal or female corporal?
The question arises, and on the rare occasions when military ranks are written in the feminine form, many people assume it is a mistake on the part of the writer. And yet! We’ll have to get used to it and even make a habit of it.
Of course, it all depends on whether you are addressing a woman or a man. When referring to a woman in writing, you should use the following spellings: sapeure, corporal, chief corporal, sergeant, chief sergeant, adjutant, chief adjutant, lieutenant, captain, commander, lieutenant-colonel, colonel and comptroller-general. The same applies to specialist ranks.
“ My respects, Mr Comptroller-General! ”
Created following the Bacquet Act of 27 December 2016, the new rank of Controller-General is a very recent addition to the fire service. It was introduced to provide greater recognition. Here too, the question arises: what should a Controller-General be called? According to the same memo, one should say: “ Mr Auditor-General ”.
As with officers of the rank of captain and above, if you come across one, you’ll even have to tell them; “ My respects, Comptroller-General ”. In any case, if we want to do it properly, as set out in the guide Etiquette and conduct of a fire officer.
Which abbreviations?
‘Cap’ or ‘cpl’ for corporal? ‘Adj/C’ or ‘Adc’ for chief warrant officer? Here are the official abbreviations for fire service ranks.
Auxiliary (Sap), Engineer (Sap), Corporal (Cpl), Senior Corporal (Cch), Sergeant (Sgt), Staff Sergeant (Sch), Warrant Officer (Adj), Chief Warrant Officer (Adc), Lieutenant (Ltn), Captain (Cne), Major (Cdt), Lieutenant-Colonel (Lcl), Colonel (Col), Comptroller-General (Cgl), Expert (Exp),