An Act to enable Her Majesty to issue Commissions to the Officers of Her Majesty's Land Forces and Royal Marines, and to Adjutants and Quartermasters of Her Militia and Volunteer Forces, without affixing Her Royal Sign Manual thereto.
[11th April 1862]
WHEREAS every Officer appointed or promoted by Her Majesty in Her Land Forces or Marines, and every Adjutant or Quartermaster in Her Militia or Volunteer Forces, receives a Commission from Her Majesty with Her Royal Sign Manual thereon: And whereas in the Case of Her Majesty's Land Forces, before such Commissions are prepared in or issued from the Office of the Secretary of State, each Officer has been appointed or promoted by Her Majesty, under Her Royal Sign Manual, to the Rank for which a Commission afterwards issues under Royal Sign Manual, and has been gazetted to his Appointment or Promotion, and has entered on the Duties and received the Pay or Emolument thereof according to the Rank to which he has been so appointed or promoted by Her Majesty: And whereas it is expedient to regulate from Time to Time the Mode of authenticating Commissions granted by Her Majesty:
Be it therefore enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the Authority of the same :
That it shall be lawful for Her Majesty, by Order in Council, from Time to Time, as Occasion may require, to direct that all or any Commissions for Officers prepared or to be prepared under the Authority of Her Majesty's Royal Sign Manual may be afterwards issued without Her Royal Sign Manual, but having thereon, in the Case of Her Majesty's Land Forces, except as herein-after mentioned, the Signatures of the Commander-in-Chief or the General Commanding-in-Chief, and of One of Her Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State, and in the Case of the Royal Marines of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, and in the Case of Military Chaplains, Commissariat and Store Officers, and of Adjutants and Quartermasters in the Militia and Volunteer Forces, of One of Her Majesty's said Principal Secretaries; and that every such Commission issued and signed in pursuance of such Order in Council shall be conclusive Evidence that the Officer named in any such Commission has been appointed or promoted by Her Majesty to the Rank or Office named therein.
Nothing herein contained shall be construed to prevent Her Majesty from signing any Commission, or to prevent any Commission so signed from having the same Validity and Effect as if this Act had not passed.