Selling your commission

Georgian social attitudes and how they relate to the officer class is perhaps a broader topic than a discussion on the sale of commissions. I think though that there are a few pre-conceptions that we need to check at the door. 1. Aristocrat = privileged and rich. You might argue that for those with the right birth there was always the former, at least to some extent. The latter is a different matter. The first surviving son inherited, the remainder (large families were not uncommon) had to make their own way. All it took was one dissolute dipsomaniac high roller in the family and everyone found themselves in those straits. 2. Through the ranks meant working class. Many started out as gentlemen volunteers, and a substantial number of KGL officers of perfectly respectable birth started out as NCOs. 3. The rise and rise of the middle class. Whilst definitely a ‘thing’ we should recognise that much of this came to fruition later. Of course there was social climbing but we should be aware of retrospectively projecting later middle class morality and values. 4. That serving in the army as an officer was considered ‘labour’, even by those that needed the money. In fashionable regiments it was impossible for junior officers to live on their pay, anyway. In barracks the duties might not be onerous, leaves of absence frequent. The buying and selling of commissions is against a much more complicated backdrop, that others are much more knowledgeable on and qualified to talk about. It would be with great trepidation that I made any compare/contrast comparisons to French republican and Napoleonic officers, who operated against a very different social back cloth and within a radically differing system!

Thank you, that is very helpful.