BRITISH ARMY COMMISIONS BY PURCHASE

Abstract

I have before me a copy of a letter dated 12 May, 1814, written by certain Lieutenant-Colonel William Fuller of the King's Dragoon Guards to a British Lord, in which is advised that a commission for His Lordship's son would cost £735. Further on in this article I shall state the prices as they were at the time of the' Crimean War. Only recently did I read a book by a very well-known British author who claims that the British army of the 1850's was small, and that the Crimean War was to prove that it was shockingly organised, but he speaks only well of the navy of that period. I ask that my readers please bear in mind that in earlier days there was no such rank as second-lieutenant nor sub-lieutenant in the British army. The most junior commissioned rank in the infantry was that of ensign. In the cavalry, it was cornet until 1871, when it became sub-lieutenant.