Lt Col Santos Casani - can you help explain his rise from Lt to Lt Col?

I am trying to find out more about Lt Col Santos Casani.

Casani was a 1920s/30s ballroom dancer who under his birth name of JOHN GOLMAN (sometimes also JOE GOLDMAN) was an infantryman and later a RAF pilot in WW1. He crashed badly in 1919, was wounded and was discharged in 1920.

In WW2 he returned to service and I have newspaper reports of him as a Lt in 1941.

In 1946 the British Army List 1946 reports that he had been promoted to a T/Captain (T was temporary?)

By the time of his medical discharge with a 100% disability pension (I think in 1947 or 1948) he was a Lt Colonel.

I don't have access to Army Lists post 1946.

There is a for sale listing for his medals, etc. from 2010 here - ORIGINAL RARE BRITISH WW2 FORMATION BADGE PATCH - GHQ INDIA - SANTOS CASANI | #1000775376 It has a capsule biography and at the bottom of it there are links to other items of his. I haven't been able to trace the e-bay seller.

I know he was assigned to soldier's welfare duties in India and he compiled a report on camps for soldiers on leave in country suggesting they should be run on the lines of Butlins... All very good, but it surprises me he rose to the rank he did? It seems quite a promotion trajectory and I am keen to learn how it came about.

I do have a not very complimentary account of him evading duty and feigning illness - see below



All in all, I am trying to understand what he did in WW2, and how and why he was promoted to the rank he achieved. I've tried sources such as the British Newspaper Archive, but not got very far.

Any help you can give gratefully accepted.

 

Alasdair,

The definitive answer could be gleaned from his official Service Record. We always recommend applying for the subject's full service record. Yes, it may take a year to arrive - either from the MoD or National Archives (TNA). It is not available online and is the definitive record. There is nothing you can do about the wait.

It would help if you post his Service Number if known.

Rapid promotion was possible in WW2. The example I recall was Enoch Powell, who later became a controversial MP; he joined as a Private in October 1939 and was a Brigadier at the end. He never saw combat, whilst I Note Casani did with the CLY. For background see: Enoch Powell - Wikipedia

Have you looked at the CLY website? See: Regimental History - The Sharpshooters Their War Diaries are on: War Diary of 4th Country of London Yeomanry 1944 I would expect an officer losing a leg would get a mention (I have not looked).

 

Did some searching……did find this newspaper article, and I’ve enlarged the part about his former military service…..this is a “newspaper article” so I can’t say it everything is true or not





And a RAF/RFC record

 

Found these three articles……the second and third one mentioned he was a “Major” on his Indian Adventures. Again as stated above his “substantive ranks” may have been “Major” but given a “temporary rank of Lt Col”

 

July 1946 Army Lists show him as T/Capt still

 

His Obit

 

Many thanks,

I knew of the press reports posted already; my question was more about the speed of his rise, so it's interesting to hear of Enoch Powell and the other information.

More questions resulting?

1) Presumably Army Lists were behind hand, eg press reports call him Major in 1945, but the July 46 Army List says Captain?

2) I thought I had to be a relative to get his service history?

3) His service number is a mystery to me as he was in the RAF, but in WW2 he appears to have been in the Army - would he have the same RAF service number? It's complicated by his RAF service being as John Golman and his Army service being as Santos Casani (for the most part, at first he was Lt Golman again in 1941.)

4) If his rank was as a temporary Lt Col, would he be able to call himself Lt Col after he was demobbed?

In that photo, he appears very be-medalled by the way!

Incidentally, his age is frequently wrongly reported in newspaper reports and obits, He was born in 1893, not 1897, so he wasn't 49 in 1947. His RAF record confirms this. And he didn't have a prosthetic (artificial) nose, it was rebuilt by plastic surgery.

 

That's the other guy in the newspaper report, not Casani.