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The Junior British Army Officer: Experience and Identity, 1793-1815

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The Junior British Army Officer: Experience and Identity, 1793-1815 The Junior British Army Officer: Experience and Identity, 1793-1815 by David Lachlan Huf, B.A. (Hons) School of Humanities (History) Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Arts University of Tasmania, June 2017 ii Declaration of Originality This thesis contains no material which has been accepted for a degree or diploma by the University or any other institution, except by way of background information and duly acknowledged in the thesis, and to the best of my knowledge and belief, no material previously published or written by another person except where due acknowledgement is made in the test of the thesis, nor does this thesis contain any material that infringes copyright. Signed ………………… Date 07/06/2017 Declaration of Authority to Access This thesis is not to be made available for loan or copying for two years following the date this statement was signed. Following that time, the thesis may be made available for loan and limited copying and communication in accordance with the Copyright Act 1968. Signed ………………… Date 07/06/2017 iii Acknowledgements This thesis is the culmination of an eight-year association with the University of Tasmania, where I started studying as an undergraduate in 2009. The number of people and institutions who I owe the deepest gratitude to during my time with the university and especially during the completion of my thesis is vast. In Gavin Daly and Anthony Page, I am privileged to have two supervisors who are so accomplished in eighteenth-century British history, and the history of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic era. My greatest thanks go to Gavin, who has been a constant source of inspiration and encouragement, firstly as a lecturer, and later as my honours and PhD supervisor. Gavin’s exceptional teaching style and knowledge convinced me to abandon my plans to pursue journalism and focus on my own passion for history. I must also thank Gavin for encouraging me to journey into the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars as a subject area for my thesis, a period I have found fascinating and fulfilling. Anthony has been extremely helpful as co-supervisor throughout my honours and PhD dissertations, especially in untangling the complexities of eighteenth-century British politics. Anthony’s enthusiasm and drive has often been a reminder of why I decided to undertake a PhD. I would also like to thank other members of staff in the history program: Stefan Petrow, Hamish Maxwell-Stewart, Alicia Marchant, and Michael Bennett have all been helpful with advice throughout my candidature. Abroad, I have benefitted immensely from conversations with several academics who kindly took time to discuss my thesis with me while I visited the United Kingdom, and I extend my warm thanks to: Matthew McCormack, Catriona Kennedy, Jasper Heinzen, Alan Forrest, and Oskar Cox Jensen. I would also like to thank the staff at the British Library, National Records of Scotland, the National Library of Ireland, and especially the extremely patient staff at the London Metropolitan Archives and the National Army Museum, who were very accommodating of me while the National Army Museum was undergoing renovations. A complete list of friends who have helped me since moving to Tasmania would be long indeed, but special thanks go to Dave Tilley, CJ Bowers, and Tai Gardner. In postgraduate offices in Hobart and Launceston I have been fortunate to have made several great friends, who have been great co-travellers as we completed our theses. Thanks to Imogen Wegman, Evan Pitt, Rickie Lette, Zoe Jay, Rosie Hunt, and Luke Badcock for giving me more reasons to come into the office. I would like to thank my parents for helping me in my move from Victoria to Tasmania; my uncles Graham and John; and the Wherrett family for their wonderful assistance (and roast dinners) after I arrived in Hobart. My in-laws, Nicky and Peter, have welcomed me into their family, and Peter kindly proof-read the later draft of my thesis. Finally, my deep thanks go to Jess, who I met just before I started my candidature, and who has put up with me talking about iv the British army for nearly five years. Jess and I now share a life in Launceston along with our collection of animals. Jess’ love, support, encouragement and patience have been constant throughout my candidature, and were especially important in 2016, which was an extremely difficult year for both of us. This thesis is dedicated to her. v Contents List of Figures vii Abstract viii Introduction 1 British Junior Officers in History 3 Soldiers and Authors 6 Culture, Experience, and Identity 10 Men in the Middle 13 1. Sociological Analysis 16 Social and National Backgrounds 17 Commissions 26 Promotions 32 Personal Economy 35 Theatres of War 39 2. Polite Masculinity and Junior Officers 43 Becoming Officers, Becoming Gentlemen? 45 Learning Gentlemanliness in the Officers’ Mess 50 Polite Sociability and the Officer Corps 54 Subverting Politeness 59 Internal Social Divides 61 Knights and Rakes 66 3. Junior Officers and the ‘Profession of Arms’ 73 Enlistment 74 Suffering and Subordination 81 Promotion 87 vi War as a Trade 94 Professional Gentlemanliness 98 4. Regiments, Family, and Friends 105 The Regimental Family 106 Honour, Glory, and the Regiment 114 Regimental Identities 118 Family Ties 123 Families in the Field 132 5. Duelling Culture and Personal Honour 140 Confronting Honour 143 Duelling and the Law 148 Civility, Duelling, and Comradeship 153 Challenging Authority 159 6. Leading the Ranks 163 A ‘Parcel of Devils’? 165 Officer-Soldier Relations 172 Corporal Punishment 180 Into Battle 186 7. National and Patriotic Identities 193 British and European Identities 194 Honour, Glory, and the Nation 204 Fighting the Revolution 211 Fighting Napoleon 217 Conclusion: Memory and Medals 226 Bibliography 232 vii List of Figures 1.1 Social Backgrounds 19 1.2 National Backgrounds 25 1.3 Ages at Commission 26 1.4 Commissions by Year, 1780-1815 27 1.5 Commissions by Branch 28 1.6 Rates of Purchased Commissions 31 1.7 Daily and Annual Pay of Junior Officers, 1810 36 1.8 Daily Pay Deductions for Rations 38 1.9 Average Number of Years Served by Period 40 1.10 Retirements by Year, 1795-1830 40 viii Abstract The bulk of British army officers during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars were junior officers, namely officers who held the rank of captain, or lower. Scholarship revealing the intellectual and cultural life of the British army during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars is expanding; however, junior officers have received little specific scholarly attention. This thesis is the first full-length study of junior army officers, and has ‘identity and experience’ as its central themes. A combination of military and cultural history, this thesis examines British junior officers as products of the military and of Georgian society, and draws on histories of masculinity, family life, and national and political identities to interpret their experiences. This thesis focuses on the lived experiences of junior officers, and interrogates three main types of personal accounts, namely letters, diaries and journals, and memoirs. This group of officers developed a set of sensibilities and perspectives that were bound to their middling status within the army’s hierarchy. Junior officers were imbued with significant authority over the rank and file, yet were subjected to the authority of superior officers. As some of the youngest members of the officer corps, junior officers straddled the lines between the civilian and military spheres, and between youth and adulthood. This thesis argues that the tensions inherent in such a position saw junior officers develop an identity as junior officers, which shaped other aspects of their identity. Junior officers fashioned identities as ‘polite gentlemen’, with the regimental mess inculcating a sense of gentlemanly value. Junior officers displayed careerist and professional ambitions, and hoped for promotion to deliver them from their subordinate position. While the honour culture of the officer corps could conflict with some new officers’ sense of masculinity, junior officers found themselves embroiled in a performative culture of honour, which included fighting duels. Although military service entailed separation from family and friends, junior officers were adept at staying in touch with family members, with some officers contriving to bring their families into the field. These family bonds proved strong enough to outweigh comparatively fluid regimental loyalties. Drawing on their social standing and the language of sensibility, junior officers styled themselves as brave patriarchs, leading from the front and caring for their men. Serving within a truly ‘British’ army, junior officers’ service had the effect of dissolving national differences, while their conceptions of patriotism broadened as the Revolutionary War gave way to war with Napoleon. 1 Introduction George Wood, the son of an army officer, was commissioned as an ensign in the 82nd Foot in August 1806 and was initially enamoured with his career choice. Wood recalled in his memoir that he was: ‘much struck with the new mode of life I was about to lead, from its apparent splendour.’1 Wounded in the Peninsula at the 1813 Battle of Vitoria, Wood was promoted to captain in 1814, before retiring to half-pay in 1816, meaning that he would never attain field rank, despite his decade of military service. Wood’s conception of himself as a soldier was inherently bound to his middling
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