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2006 “Temporary Gentlemen” on the Western Front: Class Consciousness and the , 1914-1918 Laura Root University of North Florida

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Suggested Citation Root, Laura, "“Temporary Gentlemen” on the Western Front: Class Consciousness and the British Army Officer, 1914-1918" (2006). All Volumes (2001-2008). 72. http://digitalcommons.unf.edu/ojii_volumes/72

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the The sprO ey Journal of Ideas and Inquiry at UNF Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in All Volumes (2001-2008) by an authorized administrator of UNF Digital Commons. For more information, please contact Digital Projects. © 2006 All Rights Reserved “Temporary Gentlemen” on officer was highly valued, whatever his social background. the Western Front: Class Consciousness and the Heavy casualty rates among junior British Army Officer, officers during the first year of forced the British army to seek officer 1914-1918 candidates from social classes not previously thought to be officer material. Laura Root Most of these new officers were Presented at the National Council on commissioned from the ranks, for the Undergraduate Research Conference duration only, and the term “Temporary Virginia Military Institute Gentleman” was born. The origins of the Lexington ,VA term are unclear, but it was in use in Britain April 2005 by 1916, when a book of letters was published by the War Department under the Faculty Advisor: Dr. J. Michael Francis, title A ‘Temporary Gentleman’ in France: Associate Professor of History home letters from an officer at the front.1 It is an interesting term – traditionally, if one Abstract was a gentleman, one was born and died a gentleman. The status was conferred by A careful evaluation of diaries and birth and education. But status as an officer memoirs of British temporary officers in in the British Army also indicated World War I suggests that the class gentlemanly status, the “officer and consciousness and Regular Army ideals gentleman,” and the connection continued inculcated during training had little bearing despite lower-class men being offered on officers’ actual experiences on the front temporary and artificial elevation to this lines. Their accounts confirm previous status. This research in part explores scholars’ conclusions about the presence of personal accounts from both traditional class feelings among officers, but the value officer classes, with regular commissions, they place on military effectiveness in the and non-traditional officers commissioned trenches is much more significant. After from the ranks, in order to assess officers’ 1914, high casualty rates among junior consciousness of being or serving with officers forced the British army to seek “Temporary Gentlemen” during the war.2 candidates for commissions from social The officers’ accounts record either classes that, before the war, would not have their own or others’ efforts to conform to been considered officer material. Accounts ideals and behavior of Regular officers. from both the traditional officer class and These attempts, as well as the very existence from the reveal new officers’ of the term “Temporary Gentleman,” conscious attempts, encouraged by their demonstrate the new officers’ consciousness superiors, to conform to the pre-war Regular of their artificial elevation to the status of Army ideal of the “officer and gentleman.” gentlemen. But the diaries and memoirs These attempts, as well as the very existence reveal that, on the front lines, an “efficient” of the term “temporary gentleman,” officer was highly valued, whatever his demonstrate the new officers’ consciousness social background. A close examination of of their artificial elevation to the status of these officers’ accounts, in conjunction with gentlemen. But the diaries and memoirs contemporary accounts of officer training, reveal that, on the front lines, an “efficient” reveals an important distinction between the augment the information mined from the practical and the pretentious. New officers officers’ accounts to paint a more complete should conform to practical Regular Army picture of the “Temporary Gentleman’s” ideals of bravery, leadership and efficiency, experience, origins, and class-consciousness. but should not pretend to be people they It is important to understand pre-war were not by feigning interest in Regular Army tradition and conceptions of horsemanship or emulating “public school gentlemanliness before analyzing how these behavior” like manners and accent, traditions and conceptions changed on the traditional markers of gentlemanly status. front lines. In the Regular army, standards of Edwin Campion Vaughan’s diary, dress, speech and behavior differentiated particularly, indicates that there was little officers from men in the ranks. There was a time or patience at the front for arrogance or belief in the army that soldiers preferred to pretension. Attempts to pretend in such a be officered by gentlemen rather than by manner generally resulted in snobbish those from their own class.4 Young men insults, even from fellow lower-class from and upper middle-class families officers. with public school and possibly university The memoirs and diaries education were considered officer material. demonstrate that social evaluation among These men were typically “not used to much junior officers, on the front lines at least, had brain work.”5 A background in hunting was become based on individual merit and also highly valued, and competent riding practicality, not on educational, was an essential part of an officer’s life. An occupational, or family background. independent income was essential, since Likewise, snobbishness tended to be Army pay was not sufficient to provide directed towards “inefficient” officers rather living expenses, let alone support necessary than lowborn ones. That this change did not equipment and expenses for polo, hunting, persist after the war, and did not even and fine dining, and an officer was evaluated completely penetrate the upper ranks during by his peers based on his ability to maintain the war, illustrates its basis in practicality the sporting and gentlemanly lifestyle.6 and its origin in extraordinary circumstances Financial restrictions alone excluded lower- not found at home or in peacetime military class men from seeking commissions, but, experience.3 As the phrase “Temporary had there not been monetary barriers, the Gentleman” indicates, these officers’ social and educational gaps were enough to elevation to the status of gentlemen was as discourage the types of men who were temporary and separate an experience as life commissioned during World War I from in the trenches, and when their particular aspiring to commissions before the war. brand of military effectiveness was no There were three routes to permanent longer needed, their elevation was no longer commission in the Regular army that existed practical or valid. Whether these officers both before and during the war – Sandhurst were aware of the coming devaluation of (the Royal Military College), Woolwich (the their status is uncertain, and it is more useful Royal Military Academy) and the Special and appropriate to concentrate on what they Reserve.7 Public schools and universities do reveal about their front-line experiences. had Officer Training Corps to prepare their A definition of Regular Army ideals, an students for the military academies, so by evaluation of secondary scholarship, as well the time young officers were commissioned, as an examination of propagandistic some had been training for assuming documents published during the war, all military leadership roles since the age of

thirteen. Family background was also from the connection that was still in place at important – most officers before the war home in Britain, and among senior officers were sons of either gentlemen or military who did not serve much on the front lines, professionals, and many were from families that ability to be an officer and a gentleman well established in producing officers from was tied to social and educational the young men of every generation.8 background.13 Experiences with training and World War I trench warfare and its serving with “Temporary Gentlemen” command style relied heavily on junior changed this perception. It was a meeting of officers as platoon and section leaders on the “two nations,” forcing interaction between front lines. As a result, casualty rates among class groups who would have been highly officers were proportionally much higher unlikely to socialize in peacetime.14 A pre- than rates among the men. Most of the war Regular officer compared training of permanently commissioned Regular officers new officers from the ranks with this died in the first year of the war. These dictum: “You can’t make a silk purse out of officers had to be replaced, but Sandhurst a sow’s ear, but you can make a good leather and Woolwich were not producing enough one.”15 He acknowledged that the new officers quickly enough.9 Temporary officers were somewhat uncouth, and commissions were issued to men from the although there is a degree of snobbishness in ranks, but in the beginning of the process, calling them “sow’s ears,” their social before the system was reformed in the background did not prevent them from being summer of 1916, many of the officers were fully functional, strong officers on the front middle-class ex-schoolboys and white-collar lines. Silk (that is, horsemanship, manners workers commissioned directly from civilian and breeding) would be nice, and had its life who had no experience in the Army.10 place in the and regimental polo field, Their ideas and examples of proper behavior but leather (bravery and effectiveness) as an officer came not from experience proved more practical and praiseworthy in under officers on the front lines, but from the trenches. popular literature and largely romanticized ’s account of his war historical knowledge about British officers. experiences, found in his autobiography, After the middle of 1916, orders were given Goodbye to All That, illustrates quite that all new temporary officers were to be powerfully and humorously the conflict commissioned from the ranks, and the between Regular army tradition and front- candidates must be recommended by their line effectiveness.16 The conflict, for Graves, commanding officer.11 The order resulted in stemmed from a certain amount of Regular increasing numbers of officers from army “childishness,” including strict Mess working-class backgrounds, with no rules and required riding lessons and polo familiarity with upper levels of army social matches.17 At the same time, even though hierarchy. certain aspects of this tradition were In 1917 Captain Basil Williams ridiculous to him, he still would rather be wrote a propagandistic work explaining the with this battalion than with any other. methods used in raising and training the Traditions of discipline and trustworthiness New Armies.12 This account of training were a part of the Royal Welch Fusiliers, sought to reassure British readers and refute even though Graves humorously observed attitudes that the quality of the New Army that, regarding the war, “the Royal Welch and its temporary officers was deteriorating don’t recognize it socially.”18 Graves as the war went on. These attitudes stemmed acknowledges that adherence to certain

aspects of traditional officer life was silly manners were much more relaxed.24 He was and unnecessary given the current style of assigned an instructor job at an Officer trench warfare, but other aspects, practical Cadet Battalion, one of many created in the and useful ones like strict discipline and a middle of 1916 to train recommended men reliable command structure, made a unit from the ranks and boys freshly out of the much more effective and safe on the front public schools. Basil Williams argues in his lines. training account that the officer candidates Graves was a Special Reservist with were treated equally, despite differences in the rank of captain with the Royal Welch social background. This equality placed Fusiliers. His commission was a permanent everyone on equal footing and produced one – typically, officers commissioned from effective leaders.25 Graves’s experiences as the Special Reserves were carefully selected an instructor convinced him that, though the and tended to be from the traditional officer officers had deteriorated from the classes.19 Graves was educated at “regimental point of view, [that is, from the Charterhouse, a public school, and came strict social standards of the Royal Welch,] from a reputable family, although several their greater efficiency in action amply close relatives were German, a fact Graves compensated for their deficiency in attempted to hide when it seemed to put him manners.”26 The test he and the other at a disadvantage (like in the war.) He was instructors administered to judge passage or not, then, a “Temporary Gentleman.” From failure of the course was a soccer or rugby that position, his impression of the New game, and those who “played rough but not Army was unfavorable; he wrote, “ the dirty” and had quick reactions passed and general impression here is that the New were commissioned. These standards of Army divisions can’t be of much military officer material are quite different from, and use.”20 He did admit, though, that their distinctly more practical than, pre-war clean, fresh appearance made his own standards of birth and education. 27 battalion feel like scarecrows – the New , like Graves, held Army units were inexperienced and untried, a permanent commission from the Special and still looked polished and nice, but more Reserves and served in the Royal Welch important to Graves was their military Fusiliers, although usually in a different effectiveness.21 He also had great scorn for battalion from Graves. Their backgrounds the Public School Battalions, filled with men are similar in many ways, although Sassoon who were his social equals, but who were was a practiced rider and huntsman from the incompetent at reading maps and patrolling. country, a crucial requisite for commission He called the battalion and its officers a before the war, while Graves was not. They “constant embarrassment” to the .22 were friends and fellow poets, and both “It is not fair,” he records one of his colonels shared the burden of German names in an having said, “putting brave men like ours anti-German war – Graves’s surname alongside that crowd.”23 Graves’s technically included “von Runicke.” sentiments of snobbery are directed at Sassoon left both memoirs and a published incompetence. diary describing his war experiences. In his As the war continued, Graves was memoirs, written in the late 1920s, Sassoon struck with changes in his battalion – the calls the term “Temporary Gentleman” a riding school for officers was abolished, “disgusting phrase.”28 Yet, while many of there were no Regular officers except for a his sentiments toward new temporary few “newly arrived Sandhurst boys,” and officers mirrored Graves’s, Sassoon is

distinctly more socially snobbish than Another illustration of this habit of Graves in his account of his fellow officers. Sassoon’s to actually couple social snobbery Perhaps his awareness of belonging to the with more practical evaluations can be found hunting-man elite and his upbringing in his memoirs, in his reactions to several completely separate from lower class people fellow officers. G. Vivian-Simpson was a were factors. One entry, describing his volunteer temporary officer, formerly a bank February 1918 trip over to France after leave clerk, who was irritatingly keen to “air his in Palestine, states that there were “very few social eligibility,” yet was potentially a intelligent, sensitive faces” about, and calls competent officer. Sassoon points out that his fellow officers “riff-raff,” complaining he later proved greedy and unreliable, and that they are always playing poker in the he was shot at Ypres on his way to a second Mess.29 A similar passage appears two years breakfast.32 Another officer, Mansfield, had earlier, in May of 1916: style and fire in his word of command, although he was not from a hunting Of all the officers having dinner, I saw no background like Sassoon, whose “view face with any touch of distinction in it. halloa” was passable but whose word of They were either utterly commonplace or command was initially unconvincing.33 He self-satisfied, or else tired-looking, feeble, later compared two other fellow officers, goggle-eyed, or otherwise deficient. Why Rees (a short, uncouth Welshman) and does one see so few proper-looking Shirley (a former public school boy). Rees officers?30 got on Sassoon’s and Shirley’s nerves with his table manners, but Sassoon found that He disapproves of self-satisfied, social incompatibilities merged on the front pretentious behavior. But, despite this lines into “communal discomfort.” In the disdain for other officers’ manners, it is trenches, Rees was the better of the two, crucial to note that, right after he deplores making jokes and talking incessantly to keep their “feeble” or “deficient” appearance, he up his courage, while Shirley, “true to the states, “Yet, our army does all right.” While traditions of his class,” simulated a the admission is in this case somewhat nonchalance that he could not get into his grudging, Sassoon makes the distinction eyes.34 between evaluating soldiers based on doing Samuel Hynes has argued that an “all right,” and evaluating based on manners upper middle-class background and public and appearance. While both bases may have school education were actually a liability on been valid to him, practicality won out in the the front lines, just as Sassoon points out in trenches. In his diary, Sassoon recorded a the case of Shirley. At these schools, boys story about a former lance in his are trained to repress outward signs of battalion who had recently been emotion, if not to suppress the entire commissioned. This officer arrived on emotion itself.35 Contemporary research into parade drunk. Sassoon found him to be a shell shock and war-induced breakdown bad officer, “quite irresponsible and not indicated that suppression of emotion eroded trustworthy,” and disdained his habit of an officer’s mental defenses over time, and swaggering about, making vulgar could cause psychological problems bad comments.31 Not only are this officer’s enough to warrant leaving the lines and manners offensive to Sassoon, but his lack going to a hospital.36 There is a particularly of military discipline and effectiveness as descriptive account of this in Charles leader disgust him as well. Carrington’s memoir, in which he narrates

his close brush with mental breakdown officers.41 From context these “appearances” during a night and day of heavy shell fire, equate with bravery. “Windiness,” or fright, brought about by his frantic efforts to was a sign of weakness for him, which he repress his fear and appear nonchalant. 37 sometimes applied to himself but never to This incident indicates that he is probably his fellow officers. from a public school background. His It would be an oversight not to point educational and social background before out that Carrington’s work is full of pride in the war is not given to the reader. He traditional military discipline and regimental attended Oxford University soon after the enthusiasm. One interesting episode in his war ended, where he wrote a large part of memoirs is the appearance of a in his memoirs, although they were not the trenches with Carrington and his men. published until 1930. Carrington admired the colonel – in fact, he Carrington appears in his memoirs as calls him his hero. It is important to note Charles Edmonds, much in the same way what precisely Carrington admired – the that Sassoon appears in his own as George colonel’s clothes, horsemanship, “incisive” Sherston. He was originally a in a speech, and his adventurous past in the Boer volunteer regiment, evidently with no War.42 The romantic image of the Regular previous military background, but his officer was still very powerful in the minds anxiety to get to France was frustrated by his of soldiers and temporary officers, and regiment’s quartering in Britain. He “got Carrington assigns to the colonel’s attributes [his] uncle to pull some strings” and was the power of restoring calm in the line at a given a commission in another regiment.38 time of particular panic and trouble. He Carrington’s perspective on “Temporary compares the colonel to a Caesar who Gentlemen” is interesting, then, because it is “snatched up a shield and stood in the ranks uncertain whether he was considered one of the Tenth Legion.”43 Even in this himself. He does not directly admit to being somewhat romantic account of the colonel’s one (in fact, none of the writers directly use appearance, Carrington attributes great the phrase “Temporary Gentleman” in their importance to his ability to calm the soldiers accounts, besides Sassoon, in his memoir in the trenches. His social status as an written much later) and he cheerfully states officer and a gentleman was clearly that, “if it was fun to be a Tommy, it was ten acknowledged and admired, but it was times more fun to be a in admired for its tangible effects on discipline Kitchener’s Army. There was scope….”39 and morale. This episode is similar to The memoirs are largely unconcerned with Graves’s account of his first impressions of other officers or Carrington’s perceptions of the Welch Fusilier officers, although Graves them. Much more than Graves or Sassoon, was antagonized, while Carrington was Carrington was concerned with how his men uplifted.44 Regular army traditions that and noncommissioned officers judged his resulted in good front-line discipline and own leadership. In fact, he was happiest morale were traditions highly sought after when he was isolated with his men in and properly emulated by new junior situations where distinctions of rank broke officers. down.40 He frequently deferred to his Carrington’s account is interesting sergeants and veteran privates when he was and challenging to analyze for evidence of uncertain about what orders he should give, class-consciousness because snobbery is and often mentions his efforts to “keep up nearly absent in this work, as are appearances” in front of his men and fellow descriptions of people’s social background.

Instead, during training (and afterward, Given Vaughan’s inexperience with although he does not admit this) he “paid army life on the Western Front and his blind hero worship to any soldier who would general inexperience with army traditions as teach [him] his trade.”45 A useful conclusion a result of his lower middle-class can be drawn from that. “Any soldier” background, he was forced to develop his includes working-class privates and own standards of judging himself and others noncommissioned officers just as much as it in leadership positions in a way that Sassoon includes colonels. Carrington is exclusively and Graves were not. Additionally, unlike concerned with narrating his own Carrington, who was similarly development as an effective leader. During inexperienced, there was little difference his initial training, he and the other new between the social class of Vaughan and that officers “carried [them]selves with no end of of many of his men. Therefore, it is useful to swagger, each trying to be the devil of a trace both Vaughan’s reaction to other fellow.”46 Later, during a successful officers and other officers’ reactions to him. maneuver for which he was later decorated, Vaughan had a difficult time getting along Carrington’s pride derives from functional with his fellow officers in France. On one military discipline. “All the messages which occasion, after marching his men several I had proudly composed in such careful miles through a storm, he reached military form [had] gone astray,” he headquarters only to be ignored by the writes.47 His shift to the use of bravery, officers inside after he came in to ask for experience and efficiency as bases of directions. Vaughan became “cross,” and judgment, rather than conformation to informed the Staff Lieutenant that he was Regular army social standards, illustrates his entitled to more courtesy than he had been conviction that effectiveness in the trenches shown, and that his troops were out in the made a line officer good, just as it made an cold. After what he considered to be an enlisted soldier good. inadequate response, Vaughan called the Edwin Campion Vaughan’s diary is officers “inefficient” for failing to organize similar to Carrington’s account in its focus proper quarters for his men and told them to on practicality, although it is far more go to hell.49 Vaughan’s anger in this critical in tone. Vaughan was commissioned situation is in part due to the lack of respect at age 19 into the Royal Warwickshire shown to him, but he lays more importance Regiment in late 1916. From an introduction on the officers’ lack of concern for his men. to his published diary, one learns that he was He is distinctly arrogant here, and the the son of an Irish Catholic customs officer, arrogance derives from his disdain for and was educated in a Jesuit school.48 He inefficiency. Vaughan’s account of another would not have been considered officer officer, this time “Second Loot,” further material before the war both for his religious illustrates Vaughan’s scorn for officers who conviction and for his inferior parentage. fail to act responsibly. The new officer, He was commissioned from the ranks, as all upon arrival, performed a “long, slow stage new officers were after 1916, but his diary salute” to the commanding officer and begins with his first days as an officer on the addressed everyone in stilted, pretentious way to France, where he seemed to be going tones: for the first time. Most likely, then, his time as a private was spent exclusively in Sir. I am pleased and proud to have the England. honour of meeting you in the scene of operations. And I can assure you that I will

do my best to serve you, and my king, at a Vaughan’s regiment, riding lessons were top rate. I’ve crossed over to make good and still required. His ineptitude at riding to help the old country all ends up.50 became evident after that first day’s ride, and Vaughan frequently mentions being Vaughan saw this behavior as forced to attend lessons, which often ridiculous and impractical. The new arrival provided humor. During one lesson, “the was originally a commercial traveler from whole village was startled by a cavalcade of Birmingham (one of the few direct shaggy horses clattering through the main references to people’s backgrounds in street with purple-faced young officers Vaughan’s diary) and later “ran off” after clinging to their saddles. We had no more receiving a slight wound. Vaughan wished riding instruction.”55 this pretentious but unsubstantial officer Evaluating other officers’ “good riddance.”51 He views a Captain assessments of Vaughan is equally as Taylor with similar scorn, and for similar important as evaluating Vaughan’s reasons. Captain Taylor (whom Vaughan assessments of his colleagues. Vaughan calls, “the poor thing”), intentionally spoke chose to record several situations in his to “no one below his own rank” and took a diary that embarrassed him or enraged his condescending tone with young officers.52 sense of self-respect. One account is of a Vaughan views these figures, both mistake he made and a resulting lecture ten attempting to distinguish themselves by days later from Pepper, a senior officer. emulating what they think are proper Vaughan was short on wiring supplies, and Regular army codes of behavior for officers, telephoned to Headquarters to ask for more. as pitiable and intolerable men whose He gave his unit’s exact location (which was pretensions did not contribute usefully to forbidden in case the Germans had gotten front-line effectiveness. access to the telephone lines) and was Vaughan’s diary indicates that he immediately hung up on. Later he was initially felt a certain pressure to conform to summoned to Headquarters, and he thought his superiors’ ideals of officer behavior. perhaps he was up for a promotion for his When asked to join a ride to a nearby town, diligence in wiring. Instead, he encountered he states, “… although I had never been on a a group of staff officers who deliberately horse before, I did not like to refuse.”53 embarrassed him by asking, “who on earth is There was still a significant connection this?” when he arrived, although they clearly between being an officer and being a knew. An officer named Hoskins then began competent horseman. Robert Graves also lecturing him about not being stupid enough experienced this during his time with the to give secrets to the Germans. Vaughan’s Royal Welch, when, since he didn’t “ride reaction to this situation is revealing. “Now, like an angel,” he participated in a riding Hoskins,” he wrote, “is only a 2nd Lieutenant school every afternoon in billets.54 Later in acting Captain, and he’s never done any the war, his battalion stopped the riding service in the line. So I wasn’t inclined to school, which occurrence Graves explains as take a choke off from him.” Vaughan one of many losses of pre-war tradition due interrupted Hoskins, saluted the to the dearth of Regular officers who commanding officer, and walked off.56 He actually cared that these traditions were was lectured again ten days later. Pepper kept. Riding was a tradition that had told him that the other officers despised his practical use during marches and transport, “arrogant unsociableness” and saw him as but no use at all in actual trench warfare. In an “inefficient young officer.” This was

because he, Vaughan, was still an it is glaringly present in A “Temporary “inexperienced young urchin” and did not Gentleman” in France: home letters from an show proper respect for others who had been officer at the front. This account was out for months or years.57 When reading this published by the War Department in Britain lecture, one is reminded of his first in 1916, and reprinted in 1918 for American encounter at headquarters, where he called audiences. It is presented in the form of the officers inefficient and told them to go to narrative letters from an officer who even hell. Vaughan, of course, records that the signs himself “Your ‘Temporary lecture was unwarranted, and that his Gentleman,’” collected and published by mistake was due to ignorance. Captain A. J. Dawson. If one analyzed this Snobbishness played an important document in the same way as the four role in Vaughan’s army experience. He was others, without knowledge of its origins or sometimes on the receiving end, as in the intent, one would draw quite a different subjection to riding lessons and his conclusion about class-consciousness among treatment at Headquarters, but when he was officers. But this document is properly the one belittling others, his feelings of self- analyzed as a propaganda piece proposing importance derived from his disdain of the War Department’s official stance on irresponsibility or effectiveness. The “Temporary Gentlemen” and showing the problem was, in most instances, including government’s attempt to glorify these the lecture after his telephone blunder, he officers and reassure the public. A detailed saw his own efforts at leadership to be far account of the officer’s background and superior to the other officers’. That Pepper upbringing (including his widowed mother’s lectured him for not showing enough respect noble sacrifices for his education and his to those more experienced than him own job as an auctioneer’s clerk) precedes illustrates Vaughan’s initial inability to an account of his patriotic enlistment in the conform to a new sort of social hierarchy army. With a nod to the new system of that developed in the trenches, where commissioning from the ranks, this work deference was given to seasoned veterans points out that, like the protagonist, there and those with practical and effective were many hundreds of men in the ranks leadership skills. Charles Carrington notes who had the makings of a good officer.58 this deference in his account, recording that The “Temporary Gentleman” has a jolly he was quite willing to consult his veteran time in France, bravely doing his duty, noncommissioned officers when there were cheerfully reminding his readers that the no other officers around to issue orders. New Army is perfectly competent, happy to With a new social hierarchy based on be considered an officer and a gentleman, experience and practicality, there was a new and in the end returning safely to England form of snobbishness. Vaughan’s arrogant with a wound. The existence of this account attitude was seen as ridiculous early in his confirms the existence of the term service in France because he lacked the “Temporary Gentleman” by 1916. It is experience to justify it – he was pretentious, surprising, given the term’s existence at the although seemingly not intentionally so. time, that the officers’ accounts do not And, as has been seen in the other officers’ mention it more often. Perhaps they all accounts, no pretentiousness of any kind found the term as “disgusting” as Siegfried was appreciated on the front lines. Sassoon did in his memoirs. If class-consciousness is nearly “Temporary Gentlemen” knew that absent in Edwin Campion Vaughan’s diary, their status as gentlemen, like their

commissions, ended when the war was over. tour of duty on the front lines. In that sense, Martin Petter has traced significant social the war was a social leveler. Siegfried problems after the war to the fact that when Sassoon wrote, “things were being said and these “Temporary Gentlemen” were done which would have been considered demobilized, they were “de-officered” as madness before the war. The effects of the well, and returned to their civilian lives and War had been the reverse of ennobling, it jobs (if the jobs were still available, and seemed. Social historians can decide many were not) as working-class men who whether I am wrong about it.”61 Social took orders, not gave them.59 An historians have concluded that the understanding of the nature of the problem experience of the British “Temporary faced by soon-to-be former officers cannot Gentleman” was one tinged with social be gained without an understanding of how snobbery, and yet they also argue that these these temporary officers came to be new officers were seen as good leaders and commissioned and how they saw refute the claim that officer quality themselves. They were elevated to officer deteriorated as the war went on.62 status out of necessity, because the British Recognition of the new standards of army had no other choice. Their evaluations evaluating officers, based on practical skills of themselves and other officers were based and leadership, is part of the solution to this on battle experience and effectiveness as seemingly self-contradictory and thus leaders, and more traditional officers like incomplete conclusion. The pre-war Sassoon and Graves admitted that their lack traditions of officer behavior operated in of social graces was compensated by their parallel, but with a distinct disadvantage, to effectiveness in the field. Likewise, an these new, more practical traditions, creating inefficient officer was useless, whatever his a complex system of snobbery based in both background. Robert Graves retained his systems. These sets of traditions were position at the Officer Cadet Battalion after largely mutually exclusive, except in the war was ended, since training of men instances where, as in Graves’s and from the ranks did not stop right away. He Carrington’s accounts, pre-war traditions of notes that the post-war arrivals were “a discipline and command structure prove constant cause of shame,” with ghastly table useful in the trenches. Thus, consulting these manners and drunkenness on parade.60 officers’ accounts in order to answer the Graves has reverted to pre-war evaluations question of whether “Temporary of officers, since wartime evaluations were Gentlemen” were conscious of their own no longer practicable. These particular inferior social class and whether it affected candidates were not given any chance to their performance on the front proved to be improve and show their effectiveness in the too simplistic an approach. Temporarily, in trenches. The new standards of evaluation the trenches, social class had ceased to be that developed as the war went on, which the measure of an officer. are so obvious in accounts like Graves’s and Vaughan’s, ended with the Armistice. World War I created a new social 1 Capt. A. J. Dawson, A ‘Temporary Gentleman’ in France: home letters from an officer at the front, 2nd hierarchy in the trenches – in a sense, (American) edition. New York and London: Putnam, 1918 instead of taking one’s birth and upbringing [First published in Britain, 1916]. into account, the new standards took into 2 Specific references to officers’ training, social and educational backgrounds, manners of dress and speech, account one’s record of service in the instances of snobbery or prejudice, and reactions to other trenches. An officer’s “birth” was his first officers were traced in the entirety of these four accounts.

3 Ian F. W. Beckett and Keith Simpson, eds. A Nation in 39 Ibid. Arms: A Social Study of the British Army in the First World 40 Beckett and Simpson, 85. War. Dover, NH: Manchester University Press, 1985. 91- 41 Carrington, 74, 126, 137, 164-5 92. 42 Ibid., 93-94. 4 Beckett and Simpson, 65. 43 Ibid. 5 Samuel Hynes, The Soldier’s Tale: Bearing Witness to 44 Graves, 126. Modern War. (New York, NY: Penguin Books, 1997) 43. 45 Carrington, 18. Emphasis mine. 3 Ibid. 46 Ibid., 19. Note also Sassoon’s disdain for “swagger” 7 Beckett and Simpson, 69. mentioned earlier, from Sassoon, Diaries, 251. 8 C. B. Otley, “The Social Origins of British Army 47 Carrington, 153. Officers,” Sociological Review 18, no. 2 (1970): 213-239. 48 Edwin Campion Vaughan, Some Desperate Glory: The 224-5. Hynes, 43-5. World War I Diary of a British Officer, 1917. New York: 9 There was a significant change in social backgrounds of Simon and Schuster, 1989. men receiving permanent commissions as well, but that is 49 Vaughan, 25-6. not within the scope of this paper. See Otley. 50 Ibid., 79-80. Vaughan’s emphasis. 10 Capt. Basil Williams, Raising and Training the New 51 Ibid. Armies (London: Constable and Co., Ltd., 1917 [1918]) 96, 52 Ibid., 158-9. 98. 53 Ibid., 11. 11 Hynes, 43-4, 105-6. 54 Graves, 126. 12 Ibid. 55 Vaughan, 157-8, 178. 13 Beckett and Simpson, 83. 56 Vaughan, 143-4. Emphasis mine. 14 G. D. Sheffield, “The Effect of the Great War on Class 57 Ibid.,152-3. Relations in Britain: The Career of Christopher 58 Dawson, xxiii. Stone DSO MC,” War & Society 7, no. 1 (1989): 87-105; 59 Martin Petter, “’Temporary Gentlemen’ in the Aftermath 91. of the Great War: Rank, Status, and the Ex-Officer 15 A. A. Hansbury-Sparrow, quoted in Beckett and Problem.” The Historical Journal 37, no. 1 (1994): 127- Simpson, 84. 152 16 Robert Graves, Good-bye to All That. Anchor Books, 60 Graves, 282. 1929 (This edition 1998). 61 Sassoon, Memoirs, 646. 17 Graves, 126. 62 Beckett and Simpson, 76, 88-9. 18 Ibid. 19 Beckett and Simpson, 76. 20 Graves, 111. 21 Ibid., 119. 22 Ibid., 214-5. 23 Ibid., 223. 24 Ibid., 238. 25 Williams, 103. 26 Graves, 246. 27 Ibid., 247. 28 Siegfried Sassoon, The Complete Memoirs of George Sherston. London: Faber and Faber, 1980. 236. 29 Siegfried Sassoon, Diaries 1915-1918. London: Faber and Faber, 1983. 216. 30 Ibid., 62. 31 Ibid., 62, 251. 32 Ibid., 238-9. 33 Ibid., 239. 34 Ibid., 426. 35 Hynes, 64. 36 W. H. R. Rivers, “An Address on the Repression of War Experience,” [Online] URL http://www.lib.byu.edu/~rdh/wwi/comment/rivers.htm. (Page maintained by Brigham Young University Library). Accessed Nov. 20, 2004. This article originally appeared in The Lancet February 2, 1918. 37 Charles Carrington, A Subaltern's War, being a memoir of the Great War from the point of view of a romantic young man. New York: Arno Press, 1972. His brush with breakdown is described from 161-5. 38 Ibid., 18.