Posted on 09/18/2022 6:29:05 AM PDT by Leaning Right
The purchase of officer commissions in the British Army was a common practice through most of its history. The practice started in 1683 during the reign of Charles II and continued until abolished on 1 November 1871, as part of the Cardwell Reforms.
Commissions could only be purchased in cavalry and infantry regiments (and therefore up to the rank of Colonel only).
(Excerpt) Read more at military-history.fandom.com ...
According to the article, a farm laborer might make £40 a year. A lieutenantcy the Foot Guard cost £2,050. One in a regular infantry regiment cost £700.
That would certainly keep the riff-raff out of the officer’s club.
Hunter Biden was commissioned in the U.S. Navy at 43 years of age when any other citizen would have been cut off at age 35.
That’s not quite correct. Biden joined as a Reserve Public Affairs Officer - not as a line officer. And the Navy at least does do that on occasion. It still stinks, though it actually was nepotism versus buying a commission.
Jao Bai-din bought Hunter Biden's commission as directed by their Chinese and Ukrainian crime counterparts and Obama approved it.
I suspect the Navy brass so willingly threw him out a month later, not for failing his drug test (not like he'd ever pass one prior to commissioning), but because so many of the other Navy commissioned officers said they'd resign.
I was just pointing out that there is a very real difference between the British practice of actually selling line, combat-commanding positions, and this kind of low-rent gravy-training for REMF's who'll never actually command anything.
The former is dangerous, the latter is just an annoying bit of corruption.
Yep....influence.....he lasted about 6 weeks - until the drug tests came in.
The Crimean War caused the British to do away with purchased commissions. The charge of the Light Brigade was led by Lord Cardigan who had purchased his way to a colonelcy.
A seriously inept officer.
An who retired sold his commission, and for those without a significant private income the proceeds of the sale was often a crucial part of their retirement planning.
Officers who died, or were cashiered, could not sell their commissions, but the same rule applied to those who were promoted from the rank of Colonel, to that of General. I can't give you an example offhand, but apparently there were cases where Colonels were outraged to find themselves promoted to General because it deprived them of their colonelcy, the sale of which had been intended to finance their retirement.
Yes, and it played a critical role in the Charge of the Light Brigade, where the major officers involved were boneheaded yahoos who hated each other and looked down on any officers such as Captain Nolan who came from being promoted up in India.
The [excellent] British TV series “Sharpe” touches on this topic. The British Army ended up with some really incompetent commanders as a result.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharpe_(TV_series)
I did catch most of Sharpe. Good stuff. Col. Henry Simmerson was the perfect example of an aristocratic and incompetent British officer. Here he is being chastised by the Duke of Wellington. Great scene.
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The battle of New Orleans cost the British a few generals and colonels in a short period of time. Bad day for officers, good day for promotions for others.
The officer-enlisted relationship in the British army has always been very much class-based. Wealth was an easy way to separate the sheep from the goats. Which explains why so many generals had “Lord” or “Sir after the “General” in their title. Major-General Sir Arthur Wellesley, or Lieutenant-General Lord Chelmsford, and so-on. For reasons that evolved out of antiquity, they considered only the upper classes (and particularly the nobility) fit for command.
Not directly related but Rudyard Kipling pulled strings to get his only son, John, commissioned in the army at the start of WWI. He was made a Second Lieutenant two days short of his 17th birthday. Weeks later he was in France and in command of troops under fire. He went missing (never to be found) while leading his men in a charge at the Battle of Loos, aged 18 years and 43 days.
But he was qualified to be an Officer of the Line at the age of 17 because his father was a gentleman.
Was there something similar for the British Navy?
I was somewhat aware of this practice, but not in this detail.
Quite common for the 2nd son in a landed family whose older brother was going to inherit the manor or whatever holding the family had, to have purchased for him a commission in the army.
Don’t know if it was good for the army, but better maybe for the 2nd son than drinking, whoring and gambling in London.
I watched the series because of your posts. Good entertainment!
The Sharpe series was excellent. But the “I, Claudius” mini series (1976) was perhaps the best thing the BBC ever put out. It is very hard for most people to watch and the first 2-3 episodes especially so. But if you can stick with it past that, its amazing. The acting is also unsurpassed, especially the character of Livia.
I think you could learn more about political science from that show than you could by getting a BS degree in that subject (from most schools).
For me, it probably ranks as the #1 TV mini series of all time.
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