Officer-Man Relations: the Officer’s Perspective

Abstract

At the beginning of the war the Regular British Other Rank was generally portrayed in the Press as a brave, dogged, tough, phlegmatic, soldierly working man in uniform who enjoyed an excellent relationship with his paternal officer. In the space of two days in September 1914 The Times printed an anecdote about a soldier who was less concerned about being wounded than the loss of his pipe, and quoted a sergeant’s opinion that one of his officers had ‘died one of the grandest deaths a British officer could wish for’.1 A subheading of 12 September 1914 read ‘Mutual Compliments of Officers and Men’. The following article quoted an artillery officer as saying that ‘Our men and horses [!] are wonderful’ and cited a sapper’s opinion that ‘the officers are grand. They do everything they can for our comfort…I cannot speak highly enough of them’.2 Conversely, the soldier–officer relationship in the German army was portrayed as being based on fear: ‘machine-like’ German soldiers were bullied in camp and driven into battle at gunpoint. Sometimes the contrast between the two armies was made explicit, on other occasions it was left unspoken.3 Similar views on British and German officer–man relations can be found in British magazines and books of the time.4 Broadly similar images of officer–man relationships appeared in print throughout the war years, even though the social composition of the army underwent significant change in this period.s Did officer–man relations in the British army of 1914–18 bear any resemblance to Fleet Street’s version?