BRITISH ARMY OFFICERS IN THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY AND NAPOLEONIC WARS - PART ONE
BRITISH ARMY OFFICERS IN THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY AND NAPOLEONIC WARS – PART ONE
In the British Army throughout this period most officers’ commissions and promotions in the cavalry and infantry, up to and including the rank of lieutenant colonel, were obtained by purchase, a system that continued until 1871. While it may appear scandalous to modern eyes that command of the King’s or Queen’s soldiers could be obtained by buying it, the system was not as iniquitous as it might seem. The logic was similar to that applied to someone joining the board of a trading company, when he would be expected to buy shares in that company. While the origins of purchase are obscure, it seems to have begun to be formalised after the restoration of Charles II in 1660, when the raising, training and equipping of regiments was farmed out to notables, who in order to recoup their outlay offered commissions in those regiments for a fee. By 1815 it had long been regulated by the state, rather than by individuals. It was the army that had executed King Charles I, the army that had brought his son back from exile and the army that had deposed James II. Purchase, on the other hand, gave the officer a stake in the system and a commitment to the existing order, which he was therefore less likely to attempt to overthrow, and it prevented the king from packing the army with his favourites, as James II had tried to do. In theory at least, the purchase system prevented parliamentary manipulation of the army, but as many senior officers were also members of parliament, interference by ministers or patrons could not be discounted entirely.
The Duke of York, second son of King George III, had an inglorious career as a field commander, but this was not by any means all his own fault, and when his father appointed him commander-in-chief of the British army, against the advice of most of its generals, he became one of the great military reformers. In the Flanders campaign of 1793–1795 he had been painfully aware of the ills besetting the army and once ensconced in Horse Guards, the headquarters of the army in London[*], he began to put them right. There would be no more child colonels: modern godfathers lay down a pipe of port for their godsons (or given the price, more probably a bottle); then it was not uncommon to buy a lieutenant colonelcy. For some time the minimum age for a commission, widely ignored, was sixteen – now it would be enforced, with an upper age limit of eighteen[†]. Applications for commissions would be made to the commander-in-chief through his military secretary, a serving officer, rather than, as previously, through the secretary at war, a political appointee who was often notoriously corrupt. There would be a laid-down length of time that an officer had to serve in one rank before purchasing the next one, and military colleges would be opened, even if hardly anyone went to them.
A young man wishing to join the army as an officer had to be able to read and write to a reasonable standard and be certified by an officer of the rank of major or above, or by a magistrate or a person of similar standing, as being suitable in all respects to hold a commission – an oblique way of ensuring that the candidate did not eat peas with his knife. Armed with his references, the young gentleman then applied to the military secretary and was placed on a waiting list. Once a vacancy occurred, whether by death, retirement or promotion, then the young aspirant was required to lodge the laid-down price of an ensigncy (for the infantry) or a cornetcy[‡] (for the cavalry) with an accredited agent. There were around seventeen agents – the number fluctuated slightly – each responsible for a group of regiments. In addition to dealing with the purchase of commissions they administered regimental funds, ensured that officers and men got paid and managed any other financial transactions affecting the regiment. For purchase they were the stake-holders. If the vacancy arose because an existing holder of a first commission was promoted, then the agent credited that officer’s account and the candidate was ‘gazetted’ as a commissioned officer – that is his name was listed in the London Gazette, which since 1665 has been and still is the British government’s official journal of record in which certain statutory notices must appear.
Once in post, an officer could then, subject to certain restrictions, purchase his way up the ladder until reaching the rank of lieutenant colonel. He could only purchase a promotion if there was a vacancy; he had to be certified by his commanding officer as fit for promotion, and the Duke of York had laid down that an officer must serve at least two years as a subaltern (ensign/cornet and lieutenant) before being promoted to captain, and that he must have at least six years’ commissioned service before becoming a major. By 1809 this had been further extended to three years as a subaltern, seven years’ service to major, including at least two as a captain, and nine years’ service to lieutenant colonel. When a vacancy occurred in a regiment, it was first offered to the most senior in that regiment of the rank below. If that officer wished to and could afford to purchase, then he lodged the difference – ‘the step’ – between his existing commission and the one he was to be promoted to with the agent and was duly gazetted in his new rank. If, for example, a major either retired or purchased a lieutenant colonelcy, then the senior captain could move up to major, the senior lieutenant to captain and the senior ensign or cornet to lieutenant. If the senior did not wish or could not afford to purchase, then the vacancy was offered to the next senior and so on. If no one could purchase, then the vacancy could go outside the regiment, but despite the experience of the young Arthur Wesley, promotions were more usually kept within the regiment, although the Duke of York reserved the right to appoint commanding officers from the pool of available lieutenant colonels.
It was possible for an officer to change regiments by swapping places with an officer of the same rank in another regiment, although both now went to the bottom of the seniority list of their rank in their new regiment. Very often the exchange would be motivated by one officer not wishing to serve in a particular station whither his regiment was to be posted, while the incomer might want to serve there or, more likely, have accepted a sum of money to agree to the exchange. When an officer retired, he could ‘sell out’ and in doing so realise the full value of his commission and thus provide himself with a capital sum to invest or live off.
The cost of commissions and subsequent promotions varied between arms of the service. The Foot Guards were the most expensive, followed by the Household Cavalry which was more expensive than the line cavalry, who cost more than the line infantry. The official rates in force at the time of the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 were :
Rank Foot Guards Line Cavalry Line Infantry
Ensign/Cornet £1080 £724 £400
Lieutenant £1500 £998 £550
Captain £3500 £2783 £1500
Major £6300 £3883 £2600
Lt Colonel £6700 £4983 £3500
On promotion an officer sold his previous rank (that is the agent would credit his account with the relevant sum) and he would only pay the ‘step’ that is the difference between his old and his new rank).
These sums mean little unless we can relate them to salaries at the time and to present-day prices. Army pay at the time was expressed as a daily rate (as it still is) but the annual salaries for officers of the line infantry were:
Lieutenant Colonel: £369.56
Major: £310
Captain: £191.62
Lieutenant: £118.62
Ensign: £95.81
Officers of the Guards and the cavalry got higher pay than those of the more humble line. In 1815 a Guards lieutenant got £142.71 per annum compared to the lieutenant of the line’s £118.62. Between 1793 and 1815 the pay of the Guards, the Cavalry and lieutenant colonels of the line remained unchanged while captains and below of the line saw their pay raised by almost 50 per cent for subalterns, 11 per cent for captains and 20 per cent for majors.
A comparison with income tax may provide an indication of the real worth of these salaries. Income tax was introduced by Prime Minister William Pitt in 1799 to pay for the war, with the promise that the tax would be for ever abolished after it[§]. It was agreed that only the comfortably off should pay it, so anyone earning less than £60 per annum was exempt. At £60 it started at two old pence in the £, a rate of 0.83 per cent, and increased gradually until those earning £200 and above paid two shillings in the pound, or 10 per cent. Thus it can be seen that the subaltern and the captain are not badly off, while majors and above could be described as well off.
The total net outlay of £3,500 to reach the rank of lieutenant colonel (spread over a number of years) equated to 9.47 years’ salary in that rank. The same number of years’ salary in that rank in 2023 would be £774,030, a huge sum even if lieutenant colonels today are (slightly) better paid in real terms than their nineteenth-century equivalents. Rather as we would go to a building society to borrow that sum to buy a house today, then another role of the army agents then was to lend money to officers to purchase first commissions or promotions. The interest to be paid on the sum borrowed depended upon how secure the loan was thought to be: in peace time the surety was the officer’s commission, but failure to pay a mortgage on property allows the lender to re-possess the house. A commission, on the other hand, was not an inheritable asset and died with the holder. Interest rates in wartime were thus higher. The bank base rate throughout the period was 5 per cent, so interest rates were usually around 6 per cent in peacetime and 10 per cent in war. To repay this in time of peace was of course possible, but far from easy, and many officers languished as lieutenants and captains unable to find the wherewithal to progress further. In wartime there were opportunities to amass riches legally by taking part in the successful capture of an enemy town or fortress or baggage train. Any monies or saleable property captured were divided up, with the major portion going to the state and the rest divided pro rata amongst the captors, rather in the way of prize money in the Royal Navy. In 1799 Colonel Arthur Wellesley commanded the reserve brigade in the storming of Seringapatam in the Second Mysore War. His share of the booty was £4,000, more than enough to repay his various creditors who had loaned him the money to buy his way to lieutenant colonel.
To be continued
[*] And now occupied by the General Officer Commanding London District and the Household Division. The Household Division consists of the infantry regiments of Guards (Grenadier, Coldstream, Scots, Welsh and Irish), the cavalry regiments of the Life Guards and the Blues and Royals, and the King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery.
[†] Today the minimum age for entry into the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst is 17 and 9 months, and the upper age limit is 28 and 11 months (which many consider is far too late for the candidate to absorb the ethos and acquire the experience for a full career).
[‡] Ensign and Cornet were the equivalents of second lieutenant today.
[§] Ho Ho!