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Lance corporal is a military rank, used by many English-speaking armed forces worldwide, and also by some police forces and other uniformed organisations. It is below the rank of corporal.
"Lance" or "lances fournies" was also a term used in medieval Europe to denote a unit of soldiers (usually three or six men).
Second corporal was also formerly used in Australia in the same way that it was used in the British Army.
The badge of rank is a single point-down chevron worn on both sleeves, or on an epaulette on the front of the Combat Soldier 95 dress standard. However, lance corporals in the Foot Guards, Honourable Artillery Company, 1st The Queen's Dragoon Guards and The Queen's Royal Hussars wear two chevrons and lance corporals in the Household Cavalry wear two chevrons surmounted by a gilt crown. The Royal Artillery uses the rank of lance bombardier instead. The date of introduction of lance corporals to the British Army is unclear, but the rank is mentioned in late-18th century military essays such as Major William Young's "An essay on the Command of Small Detachments" (1766) and John Williamson's "The Elements of Military Arrangement" (1781):
"When from sickness or other causes there are not in a company a sufficient number of non-commission officers to do the duty, the captain can appoint corporals to do the duty of serjeants, who are called lance serjeants, and private men to do the duty of corporals, who are called lance corporals."
The designation "chosen man", used during the Napoleonic Wars, was possibly a precursor to the rank.Michael Glover, "Wellington's Army in the Peninsula, 1808-1814", p. 69, Hippocrene Books, 1977 .Nicholas Payan Dawnay, "The Badges of Warrant and Non-commissioned Rank in the British Army", p. 18, Gale & Polden for the Society for Army Historical Research, 1949 . The first mention of a lance corporal in The Times is in 1819,"Ceylon Government Gazette", The Times, 4 January 1819 although the first mention in the London Gazette is not until 1831. The first mention in the London Gazette of a lance corporal in the Royal Marines is in 1838.
Until 1 September 1961, lance corporal and lance bombardier were only appointments rather than substantive ranks, given to privates (or equivalent) who were acting NCOs, and could be taken away by the soldier's commanding officer (whereas a full corporal or bombardier could only be demoted by court martial)."Lance Corporal to Become Army Rank", The Times, 26 August 1961 Until 1920, the Royal Engineers and Army Ordnance Corps also used the similar rank of second corporal, which was a substantive rank (also wearing one chevron). Until 1920, bombardiers in the Royal Artillery were equivalent to second corporals and until 1918 (when the rank of lance bombardier replaced it), acting bombardiers were equivalent to lance corporals (both wearing one chevron).
In the infantry, a lance corporal usually serves as second-in-command of a section and commander of its delta Fireteam. It is also a rank commonly held by specialists such as clerks, drivers, signallers, machine-gunners, and mortarmen. In the Intelligence Corps and Royal Military Police, all other ranks are promoted to lance corporal on completion of their training.
Lance-corporals who are appointed second-in-command/third-in-command of a section can give commands to the rest of the section. National servicemen are usually promoted to this rank after completing their respective vocational courses and within the first year of service. Servicemen who fail to pass their Individual physical proficiency test (IPPT) during their active service will have their rank capped at LCP regardless of vocation.
A lance-corporal wears rank insignia of a single point-down chevron with an arc above it (similar to an inverted US Army PFC rank insignia).
NCC lance corporals wear the same rank insignia as that of the SAF, except that the letters 'NCC' are below the insignia so as to differentiate NCC from SAF personnel. NPCC and NCDCC lance corporals wear the same rank insignia as that of an SCDF lance corporal, except that the letters 'NPCC' and 'NCDCC' are below the insignia so as to differentiate NPCC and NCDCC cadets from Singapore Police Force and Singapore Civil Defence Force personnel respectively.
In the General Regulations for the Army of the United States (Article XVI, Paragraph 64), published on 25 January 1841, and again in the 1847 edition (Article XIII, Paragraph 121; Article XIV, Paragraph 134; and Article XLIX Paragraph 818), the title of lance corporal is authorised. Again, in the Revised Army Regulations of 1861 published on 10 August 1861 and in the 1863 edition "With An Appendix Containing the Changes and Laws Affecting Army Regulations And Articles Of War To June 25, 1863" (Article 40, Paragraph 971), lance corporal is authorised. Lance corporal is again authorised in Regulations of the Army of the United States and General Orders In Force on the 17th of February 1881 (Article LV, Paragraph 812) and in Regulations of the Army of the United States 1895 (Article XXXII, Paragraph 257).
In the edition of 1901 " With Appendix Separately Indexed And Showing Changes to January 1, 1901", in the Appendix, page 331, in Headquarters of the Army, General Orders, No. 42, June 30, 1897, Part II, the lance corporal is authorised to wear "...a chevron having one bar..." In Regulations for the Army of the United States 1904 (Article XXX, Paragraph 263), "...no company shall have more than one lance corporal at a time, unless there are noncommissioned officers absent by authority, during which absences there may be one for each absentee." This proscription appears again in Article XXX, Paragraph 272 of Regulations for the Army of the United States 1910, and the editions of 1913, and 1917 " Corrected to April 15, 1917 (Changes, Nos. 1 to 55)".
In 1920, the former lance corporal insignia of rank was assigned to the rank of private first class in War Department Circular No. 303, dated 3 August 1920. However, the Institute of Heraldry states that some older U.S. Army Tables of Organization and Equipment still in use in 1940 continued to authorise lance corporals.
In February 1965, the US Army announced that, effective from 1 September 1965, pay grade E-3 would be redesignated as lance corporal. Army Information Digest, April 1965, page 39 The rank insignia was to be the pre-World War II specialist grade 6 insignia of one chevron above one arc, or "rocker". However, by September 1965 the plan was cancelled. Army Information Digest, September 1965, page 2 The insignia was, however, adopted for pay grade E-3, which continued to be named private first class.
The USMC is the only component of the U.S. Armed Forces to currently use the rank. Promotion to lance corporal is based on time in grade, time in service, and the conduct of the marine. Further promotion to the NCO ranks (corporal and above) is competitive and takes into account the individual service record of the marine. There can only be a certain number of corporals and sergeants in each MOS, so even with a qualifying score, promotions may be delayed due to an excessive number of corporals occupying billets in a certain MOS.
From the earliest years of the Corps, the ranks of lance corporal and lance sergeant were in common usage. The rank of lance corporal has been used in the Marine Corps since the 1830s in the Indian Wars. Marines were appointed temporarily from the next lower rank to the higher grade but were still paid at the lower rank. By 1887, this practice was widespread in the Corps. The Commandant had later ordered that such appointments should only last one month, and that if the marine holding the appointment had failed to pass the relevant examination for the rank he was temporarily serving by the end of this one month period, his appointment was to be given to someone else. As the rank structure became more firmly defined, the rank of lance sergeant fell out of use, but the rank of lance corporal remained in unofficial use in the Corps into the 1930s, although it had officially become redundant when the rank of private first class was established in 1917. The rank of lance corporal fell out of usage prior to World War II, but was permanently re-established in the sweeping rank restructuring of 1958.
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