The Educational Background of British Army Officers

Abstract

This paper presents an historical and statistical analysis of the pre-professional education of officers of various sectors and levels of the British Army between 1800 and 1971. `Four eras' in the evolution of educational selectivity in the army commissioning system are identified: 1800-1849—educational criteria irrelevant; 1849-1870—partial educational selectivity; 1870-1939—examination-dominated selection; 1941 onwards—'scientific' selection. In the light of this historical pattern, it was anticipated that the officer corps would show a heavy dependence on the élite sector of education, although also, over time, a reduction in this dependence. Examination of figures for membership of Woolwich (1855-1939), of Sandhurst (1890-1967), of the army élite (1870-1971), and of the officer corps as a whole (1969) verified these predictions. Officership proves to have been a virtual monopoly of the public schools—amongst whom the major boarding schools were predominant—at least up to the Second World War, and even since then public school boys have predominated at every level of the army until quite recently. However, it is also clear that an irreversible decline in the role of the public schools has now set in, and that state sector schools are now taking over the major role in the supply of new officers.