Social Class Represented in Regimental Surnames: Officers Vs Other Ranks

[JMB1943]

16 hours ago, PhilC said:

I just want to pick up on one of the assumptions made in the first post which appears to have been overlooked; that "Officers in the British Army were only commissioned from a select list of public schools (i.e., private, fee-paying schools". Only is rather a strong word to use as there had always been small numbers of people commissioned from outside that set, including soldiers promoted from the ranks and the Great War wasn't the first time it happened. The previous Great War, now known as the Napoleonic Wars, saw roughly five per cent of commissions going to rankers due to a mixture of high losses among the officers and the expansion of the army although I think only two got beyond Major. The most well known of these (other than Sharpe of course) was John Elley, who was the son of a London innkeeper and enlisted in the Blues (Royal Horse Guards) in 1789.  He appears to have been a bit of a flyer and received a quartermaster's commission in 1790 before becoming a cornet (2nd Lieutenant in today's ranks) in 1794. By the time of Waterloo he was Colonel Sir John Elley and eventually, in 1837, Lieutenant General.

It still happened in the Victorian era with one being the ill-starred Major General Sir Hector MacDonald who was the son of a highland crofter:

https://www.britishempire.co.uk/forces/armyunits/britishinfantry/gordonsmacdonald.htm

And I presume most here will be aware of this chap who was admittedly rather unusual in going all the way from private to Field Marshall:

PhilC,

I’m afraid that you cannot have it both ways!

That is, you cannot refute that Regular army commissions during peace-time went “only” to the select public school men and in the next breathe give the example of a huge 5% taken from the ranks (therefore 95% NOT taken from the ranks) due to necessity during the Napoleonic Wars.

The rare two examples of high-fliers (Robertson & MacDonald) are the exceptions that serve, I think, to prove the rule.

We all know that the officer corps epitomized the class system, (e.g. the Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton) so why the nit-picking attempts to say it “ain’t so”?

Regards,

JMB