Mike,
I think most of those who have served would confirm that they never forget their service number! Indeed an other rank would have been allocated a number when attested and if/when commissioned allocated another new number.
I wonder if the number scratched and inked on the knives were not added by Alan Emery himself but by someone else?
Of course in the years before computers and databases, numbers were allocated by dispersed Regimental Manning and Records Offices and to avoid duplicate issues the details of the recipient were recorded in "copperplate" in bound ledgers.
Tim
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"Manui dat cognitio vires - Knowledge gives strength to the arm"
"Better to know it but not need it than to need it and not know it!"
"Have more than thou showest, speak less than thou knowest."
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