Sale of commissions
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Through most of the history of the British Army it was common practice for officers to purchase their rank. The practice started during the reign of Charles II and continued up until the 19th century when the Army reform act introduced by British Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone abolished the practice. Commissions could only be purchased in the Guards and in infantry and calvary regiments. Commissions in the Royal Engineers and the Royal Artillery were awarded to those who graduated from a course at the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich.
There were several key reasons behind the sale of commissions.
- It prevented the poor from becoming officers, thereby reinforcing the class system.
- It gave the officer class a vested interest in maintaining the status quo, thereby reducing the possibility of Army units taking part in a revolution or coup.
- It ensured that officers had private means and were unlikely to engage in looting or pillaging.
The practice reached its height in the 1850s with the Crimean War when Lord Cardigan paid £40,000 for his commission. It was in the Crimean War that it became most obvious that the system of purchase had led to incompetent leadership, like that which resulted in The Charge of the Light Brigade.