Editing Warrant officer (section)

====Royal Marines====
Before 1879, the [[Royal Marines]] had no warrant officers:<ref>{{cite web |url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1879/jul/29/navy-the-royal-marines-ser-geants |title= Navy — The Royal Marines — Sergeants. — Question. |website=[[Hansard|Parliamentary Debates (Hansard)]] |date=29 July 1879 |access-date=1 August 2017 }}</ref> by the end of 1881, the Royal Marines had given warrant rank to their sergeant-majors and some other senior non-commissioned officers, in a similar fashion to the army.<ref>{{London Gazette |title=Warrant Officers |issue=25044 |date=2 December 1881 |page=6466 }}</ref> When the army introduced the ranks of warrant officer class I and class II in 1915, the Royal Marines did the same shortly after.<ref>{{London Gazette |title=Whereas there was this day read at the Board a Memorial from the Right Honourable the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty... |issue=29364 |date=12 November 1915 |page=11174 }}</ref> From February 1920, Royal Marines warrant officers class I (renamed warrant officers) were given the same status as Royal Navy warrant officers and the rank of warrant officer class II was abolished in the Royal Marines, with no further promotions to this rank.<ref name="LGRM">{{London Gazette |title=Whereas there was this day read at the Board a Memorial from the Right Honourable the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty... Schedule V, Section X: Miscellaneous Provisions |issue=31765 |date=3 February 1920 |page=1414 }} Retrieved 26 May 2023/</ref>

The marines had introduced warrant officers equivalent in status to the Royal Navy's from 1910 with the Royal Marines gunner (originally titled gunnery sergeant-major), equivalent to the navy's warrant rank of gunner.<ref>{{London Gazette |title=Whereas there was this day read at the Board a Memorial from the Right Honourable the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty... |issue=28437 |date=15 November 1910 |page=8163 }}</ref><ref>{{London Gazette |title=Whereas there was this day read at the Board a Memorial from the Right Honourable the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty... |issue=30131 |date=15 June 1917 |page=5870 }}</ref> Development of these ranks closely paralleled that of their naval counterparts: as in the Royal Navy, by the Second World War there were warrant officers and commissioned warrant officers (e.g. [[staff sergeant major]]s, commissioned staff sergeant majors, Royal Marines gunners, commissioned Royal Marines gunners, etc.). As officers, they were saluted by junior ranks in the Royal Marines and the army. These all became (commissioned) branch officer ranks in 1949, and special duties officer ranks in 1956. These ranks would return in 1972, this time similar to their army counterparts, and not as the RN did before. The most senior Royal Marines warrant officer is the [[Corps Regimental Sergeant Major]]. Unlike the RN proper (since 2014), it retains both WO ranks.