Locally (soluble-by-finite) groups with all proper insoluble subgroups of finite rank

A group G has finite rank r if every finitely generated subgroup of G is at most r-generator. If C is a class of groups then we let C* denote the class of groups G in which every proper subgroup of G is either of finite rank or in C. We let denote the class of soluble groups and the class of soluble groups of derived length at most d, where d is a positive integer. We let λ denote the set of closure operations and let denote the λ-closure of the class of periodic locally graded groups. Amongst other results we prove that a soluble -group is either of finite rank or of derived length at most d and also that a group in the class is either locally soluble, or has finite rank, or is isomorphic to one of or for suitable locally finite fields . The second author would like to thank the Department of Mathematics at Bucknell University for its hospitality while part of this work was being done.