Page 80 - The Wish Stream Year of 2020 Crest

Early history
The purchase of commissions can be traced back to medieval days (starting in the 12th century under Henry II) and the raising of private armies (‘companies’) by the King, where men of means invested capital to raise such companies, selling commissions (effectively shares) in them to offset the cost, and to make a profit. As with shares today, commissions in the companies could be bought or sold by the holder. At first, these com- panies were often made up of foreign mercenar- ies but later, contracts were largely placed within England so that the companies began to possess more of a national character. Although the larg- est unit at first was the ‘company’, in time (and certainly by the end of the reign of Elizabeth I) the regimental organisation was introduced bringing with it an extension of the purchase system.
The method of raising an armed force, leading eventually to a standing army, was complex with the crown being more involved as time went on. Generally, the sovereign issued a letter of service to a reputable leader authorising him to raise a certain number of men within a given period. The crown provided a fixed sum for each man raised and a regular rate of pay. Commissions (effectively shares) in the company or regiment raised were sold by its leader, the officers joining not just for gainful employment and the chance of glory, but importantly also for financial gain. Profits could be made by officers, as sharehold- ers, from the economical use of crown money, as well as from the many opportunities available for fraud and corruption!
Britain was not alone in the sale of commissions. Similar processes existed in many other Euro- pean states. In France for example, the system also had similar medieval roots but was aban- doned in 1790 after the Revolution, although pre-revolutionary France had been considering its abolition from around 1775 when the Comte de Saint Germain was Minister of War. The French state at the time was usually involved in the sale of commissions for its own benefit. Dur- ing the 16th century, the Spanish Army was the recognised model for military organisation, and one of its main features was the buying and sell- ing of commissions.
This may have been influential in Britain retaining the system after the establishment of a stand- ing army, apart from during Cromwell’s Com- monwealth (1649 – 1660) when the sale of commissions was officially banned in the New
Oliver Cromwell after Samuel Cooper 1656
Model Army, although it is known that covert financial transactions between individual offic- ers did sometimes take place! This ban, and the resultant change in the social composition of the officer corps, led to a noticeable improvement in moral tone and reduction of corruption of the Army, and enabled a fairer system of promo- tion, based more on length of service and merit, rather than the ability to pay! But that was not to last after the Commonwealth.
Post-Restoration
The practice of commission purchase had been retained by the royalist regiments with Charles Stuart (later Charles II) in Flanders, and so was reintroduced from 1660 into the post-Restora- tion regiments, first in the Guards, and then into other regiments as they were formed as the nucleus of the new standing army. Purchase then operated to its greatest extent encompassing all regimental commissions in the Guards, cavalry and infantry from cornet and ensign (2nd Lieu- tenant) to colonel, including the staff appoint- ments of adjutant, quartermaster, chaplain and surgeon. The original marines, formed in 1664 as the Duke of York and Albany’s Maritime Regi- ment of Foot (known as the Admiral’s Regiment), were included in the purchase system. But when they were reorganised under the Admiralty in 1755 as His Majesty’s Marine Forces, the sale of commissions was banned.
78 HISTORICAL