Major-general (United Kingdom)

Major General (Maj Gen), is a 2 star rank in the British Army and Royal Marines. The rank was also briefly used by the Royal Air Force for a year and a half, to August 1919. In the British Army, a Major General is the customary rank for the appointment of Division commander. In the Royal Marines, the rank of Major General is held by the Commandant General.

A Major General is senior to a Brigadier but subordinate to Lieutenant General. The rank has a NATO rank code of OF-7, equivalent to a Rear Admiral in the Royal Navy or an Air Vice-Marshal in the Royal Air Force and the air forces of many Commonwealth countries.

The rank insignia is the star (or 'pip') of the Order of the Bath, over a crossed sword and baton, similar to that of a Deputy Chief Constable in the police.

In terms of orthography, compound ranks were invariably hyphenated, prior to about 1980. Nowadays the rank is almost equally invariably non-hyphenated. To see the confusion in a source as definitive as the London Gazette, compare the entries in these two editions from 1979: firstly: from June, and then: from November. When written as a title, especially before a person's name, both words of the rank are always capitalised, whether using the 'traditional' hyphenated style of, say, the two World Wars, or the modern un-hyphenated style. When used as common nouns, they might be written in lower-case: 'Major-General Montgomery was one of several major-generals to be promoted at this time'.

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