NOW HE WAS A MAN TO FOLLOW

[browningautorifle]

Why did Churchill say to certain upset senior officers after he made Percy Hobart a Major General (again) instead of a Corporal in the Home Guard: "The Army is not a club!"?

You recall of course the majority of the officers in WW1 were still of the aristocracy. It's been stated that no commission was purchased after 1914, but I can tell you for a fact it's still going on. It's just done differently. That creates the "Club" atmosphere you describe. Thus the incompetence of many senior officers during the first great unpleasantness... They weren't actual soldiers, they were rich guys that wanted to be in charge. Self entitlement...

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[Paul S.]

You recall of course the majority of the officers in WW1 were still of the aristocracy. It's been stated that no commission was purchased after 1914, but I can tell you for a fact it's still going on. It's just done differently. That creates the "Club" atmosphere you describe. Thus the incompetence of many senior officers during the first great unpleasantness... They weren't actual soldiers, they were rich guys that wanted to be in charge. Self entitlement...

That, and that the majority of British Army officers at the beginning of both world wars had attended the same public schools (US readers: very expensive, exclusive, private boarding schools). That alone created a club or clique atmosphere with an attitude of disdain for those who weren't from the same 'class of people'. Churchill, in fact, had attended one of the elite public schools (Harrow) in his day before going to Sandhurst and the Army. He knew of which he spoke.

The RAF and RN was equally bad, if not worse. Oxford and Cambridge universities were much the same way back then as well. It was as it was, and change a bit during the interwar years and much more so from the early 1950s onward.

Familiarity with social history offers contextual depth to military history. Reading Chesterton's writings about pre-WWI and WWI Germany and Europe offers some insights into their social mentalities and subsequent events during the interwar period.