Reform and Wellington’s Post Waterloo Army, 1815–1854

Type:

Book Chapter

Author:

Richard L. Blanco

Published:

2020

Publisher:

Routledge

The Army, one of the most conservative British institutions, smugly resisted changes after 1815 until public criticism of Army fiascos during the Crimean War forced it to initiate improvements that were characteristic of the Age of Reform. As Elie Halevy noted, the direction of British political and military institutions after Waterloo were “in perfect harmony,” for the Army was the training ground for gentlemen expected to assume their hereditary civic and administrative functions. In 1854, the Army, the victim of decades of economy measures and public apathy, was approaching its first major trial since 1815 with customs, weapons, equipment, and administration unchanged in forty years. The practice of purchasing a commission in the Army began about 1663. The unofficial explanation for their buying of rank in the Army was that only gentlemen with wealth and property and thus a permanent stake in the nation were fit to command.

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