Class Structure and the British Army

Abstract

Introduction This chapter will argue that the army's structure almost exactly reflected class distinctions as they were developing in industrialising Britain (see Illustration 1). It will examine how class pervaded every part of the nineteenth-century military. Army officers traditionally came from the gentry or aristocracy, though, with wartime enlargements, more enlisted from upper-middle-class backgrounds, notably in unfashionable and technical regiments. Until the 1870s, junior officers, except in the artillery and engineers, generally purchased their commissions and promotions up to Lieutenant Colonel, the highest rank in individual regiments. Higher promotions, up to General, though often dependent on family influence, was the responsibility of the War Office. The purchase system suited both the wealthy families of otherwise potentially unemployable younger sons, and the relatively small state, which did not have to provide for their retirement pensions. In contrast with much of post-revolutionary Europe, as a deliberate and class-based policy, British officers were rarely promoted from the ranks. Those who were elevated mainly had specialist or management roles, such as adjutants, paymasters or veterinary surgeons, which caused the prevailing amateurism of the British officer corps to continue. This unprofessional attitude, characterised by an aristocratic languor, was also adopted by junior officers from middle-class backgrounds. Even the abolition of the purchase of commissions in 1871 did not change the army's class-based composition, and, except during the two world wars of the twentieth century, arguably, it continues to this day. The eighteenth-century custom of proprietor Colonels, who were entitled to make money from their office, was declining by the Napoleonic Wars. However, vestiges of official graft remained, centred on the provision of uniforms which was the responsibility of individual Colonels until after the disasters of the Crimean War. In addition, officers in colonial postings could sometimes make money through trade, gifts or bribes from local rulers and wartime loot. This was the main compensation for service in the less prestigious army of the East India Company. War was welcomed by officers, not just for its honour, but because sudden death meant rapid and unpurchased promotion and the opportunity for plunder and prize money which was eagerly seized by officers as much as it was by penniless rankers. Common soldiers, by contrast, were nearly all working class. They have traditionally been viewed as a dangerous and unsettled under-class – ‘the very scum of the earth’ in the Duke of Wellington's famous phrase.