Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 February 2009
The ex-officer problem in Britain following the Great War derived its special meaning from the difficulties associated with finding a satisfactory relationship between wartime rank and postwar status. Images of social decline competed for public attention with those of social elevation. Behind these images lay a series of dilemmas about how to reconcile the social and economic effects of military promotion with the claims of democracy. The shifting usage of the term ‘temporary gentleman’ during the war reflected the changing background of those being granted commissions, and the possibilities of upward mobility produced tensions which were to persist and grow after demobilization. Government policies for ex-officers, in seeking to assist talent without perpetuating the distinctions of rank, were directly affected by such tensions. Ultimately, expectations of higher social status faded in the light of experiences which conveyed a sense of loss and decline, and ex-officers became a symbol for those who saw their pre-war social position being threatened in a less secure world. However, the ex-officer problem existed in its own right as the result of the uniquely awkward adjustments associated with being ‘de-officered’ at the same time as being demobilized.
I wish to thank McGill University and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for their support of the research for this article.
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74 See reports of district directors and McCall's covering memo of 28 Aug. 1918 in P.R.O., LAB 2/1515/DRA 116/10.
75 P.R.O., LAB 2/1515/DRA 116/9. See also LAB 2/1515/DRA/16/16 and LAB 2/1518/DRA 203/3.
76 The non-compassionate nature of the Training Grants Scheme was underlined repeatedly, for example before the select committee on pensions: see HC 247, S.C. on pensions (Parl. Papers, 1919, VI), minutes of evidence 4 Nov. 1919, p. 438. The quotation here comes from Cmd. 2481, Report of the ministry of labour for the years 1923 and 1924 (Parl. Papers, 1924–25, XIV), p. 209. The appointments department document of Feb. 1919 is in P.R.O., LAB 2/1502/DRAY 87.
77 The Ex-Service Man, 18 Dec. 1918, article on the ‘Ex-ranker problem’; Ranold Frost, ‘Ex-officers and the future’, The Athenaeum, no. 4635 (Nov. 1918), pp. 467–8. See also Moseley, , ‘The problem of the ex-officer’, p. 293Google Scholar; Artists' Rifles Journal, II (Nov. 1918), 139Google Scholar; Report of first annual meeting of the Ex-Officers' Employment Bureau cited in the Morning Post, 3 June 1919; Sir Douglas Haig's letter to the war office of 26 Nov. 1918 in P.R.O., CAB 24/71/GT 6431.
78 ‘Resettlement of officers’, copy in P.R.O., RECO 1/88. To drive the point home, a number of examples were provided of the disparities between officers' salaries and those of the pre-war university graduate in various professions. The pamphlet was on sale in almost every bookstall, and was often cited in discussions of ex-officer questions (see, for example, P.R.O., ED 47/10 and HC 247, S.C. on pensions, (Parl. Papers, 1919, VI), minutes of evidence for Brigadier A. Asquith, 4 Nov. 1919).
79 The following discussion is based on P.R.O., CAB 23/9/WC 514; CAB 24/73/GT 6612; CAB 33/19 and 20; LAB 2/1517/DRA 150; and LAB 2/1518/DRA 203/19. For background to the Training Grants Scheme and Civil Liabilities, see Cmd. 2481, pp. 208–24; P.R.O., LAB 2/1566/C.L. 12591/1920.
80 The use by the ministries responsible of terms such as ‘men of like standing’ and ‘men of similar educational qualifications’ to describe eligible rankers, touched off a parliamentary debate on this very question. See Parliamentary debates (Commons), 5th series, vol. CXII, 27 f. 1919, C. 2035–42.
81 P.R.O., PIN 15/918/G/GEN/2002; Parliamentary debates (Commons), 5th series, vol. CXII, 14 Feb. 1919, C. 453–60.
82 P.R.O., LAB 2/1517/DRA 179/3, esP. R. A.Johnson's minute of 1 Aug. 1919. The Ex-Officers' National Union campaigned unsuccessfully for officers to be given half-pay until they found employment. See The Ex-Serince Man, 16 Aug., 1 Nov. 1919; Army and Navy Gazette, 2 Aug. 1919.
83 P.R.O., LAB 2/1502/DRAY 72; LAB 2/1518/DRA 203/35; ED 47/4; ED 47/16. For the appointments department memo of 14 April 1920 and the concerns about trainees, see P.R.O., LAB 2/1512/AD 3147/1920. See also the The Times, 14 Nov. 1919, 10 Apr., 23 Apr., 5 Aug. 1920; The Ex-Service Man, 15 Nov., 16 Dec. 1919, 3 Apr. 1920; Army and Navy Gazette, 29 Nov. 1919; Owen, , Journey from obscurity, p. 234Google Scholar. I shall be treating the subject of ex-officers' educational training at greater length elsewhere.
84 P.R.O., LAB 2/1499/AD262/1923. For comments of the appointments department's director for the London district (DD 10) on the profile of candidates on his register, see P.R.O., LAB 2/1508/AD 233/4/1902 and LAB 2/1511/AD 2885/1920. See also The Times, 5 Nov. 1919; DSS Bulletin, 5 Feb. 1920; Winter, D., Death's men, pp. 241–3.Google Scholar
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86 A. H. Chovil to H. J. Wilson, 10 Feb. 1923 in P.R.O., LAB 2/1513/AD 108/1923. Cf. Cmd. 2481, Report of the ministry of labour, (Parl. Papers, 1924–25, XIV), p. 213; The Artists' Rifles Journal, III (March 1920); The Ex-Service Man, 3 Apr. 1920; British Legion Journal, II (Sept. 1922).