Army grades

[warpig1]

If you enter the army as an officer what grade would you enter at and what grade (hypothetically) could you aspire to?

Also is it possible for someone who entered the army as say a private to attain the rank of officer?

thanks
warpig1

[Quizmonster]

In the British Army, Second Lieutenant is generally the starting rank for officers, though some - eg qualified doctors - may be allowed to enter at higher grades. The highest rank is Field Marshal.
Certainly, a private may become an officer...there's even an old saying about every private having a General's or Field Marshal's baton in his knapsack! So, theoretically, yes even to the top.

[kev100]

Or if you are a member of the "royal family" you can do three days training and then be a captain, or if you are my grandad you can join as a private spend three years in the field of battle get shot and mustard gassed and be retired still a private and die aged 59 on ten bob a week pension in a house that has neither a bathroom nor an inside toilet.

"Go and fight for king and country and you will be rewarded by being provided with homes fit for heroes"

My grandad was a hero and had to live in a home that wasn't fit for pigs just like millions more that fought for this scumbag system

[daisy48]

Hear hear kev100. My Dad was in the Merchant Navy and if it was'nt for them the nation would have starved, yet they had no recognition until 6 years ago. September 3rd is now and at long last a remembrance day for the men who lost their lives and those who survived. My Dad was on 3 ships,all of them were torpedoed with the loss of many lives. Once a man was lost at sea or taken prisoner their womenfolk's wages just stopped dead as if the sailor had never exsisted. Can you imagine an officer's wife having no money to feed and clothe her kids? Never in this world!

[kempie]

No Field Marshals are routinely appointed in peacetime, although members of the Royal Family and certain other very senior officers are still eligible to be appointed (although none has been appointed since the general suspension of the rank as a consequence of defence budget cuts during the mid 1990s).

I believe that currently there exist six Field Marshals in the British Army, including the appointments of HRH Duke of Edinburgh (in 1953, along with the ranks of Admiral of the Fleet, Marshal of the Royal Air Force and Captain-General of the Royal Marines) and HRH Duke of Kent (in 1993, 17 years after he retired from the Army).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Field_Marshal_(UK )

[johnlambert]

There has only ever been one person in the British Army to hold every rank fron Private to Field Marshal. He was Field Marshal Sir William Robertson, he achieved this remarkable feat from 1860ish to 1919, he joined the Royal Hussars as Humble Pte and was awarded his Field Marshall's baton in 1919 after ww1.
He died in 1933 warning that Germany/Hitler was looking to start another war soon. He died of Thrombosis of the leg,. and his last words were to his maid, they were, "where's the bl00dy tea"?
His son served as an officer during the 2nd world war.
(i knew my degeree in military history would come in handy one day)

[Bellringer]

Hey, Daisy & Kev,
Don't get bitter. That's just the way things were. I am ex Merchant service & fly the Red Duster every 3rd September.
My youngest son joined the Army as a Private & is now a Captain. My Grandfather fought in the Boer War & the First World War. He started as a Private & was demobbed as a Sergeant. Dead lucky, he only got frost bite in WW1. At the start of WW1 there was no provision for paying dependants so my Grandmother & chidren just had to manage for a couple of years.
It takes all sorts, you just get on with it.

[kev100]

I'm from Accrington Bellringer, there isnt a house in this town or Burnley or Bradford that didn't lose a son or a brother in the pals regiments dont f****** tell me how lucky we are

[sako 243]

as quizmonster said most officers pass out as second lieutenant but there are exceptions.most officers range from that up to captain with the more savvied ones going further up the ladder to command there own battalion,usually lieutenant colonel.any higher and they are in divisional and suchlike structures where they have a bigger say in operations and tactics.eg who the cannon fodder will be. as for privates becoming officers it is not too common.in wartime it was more common as they were fast balled there due to sheer amount of casualties(by the sounds of it all from kev100s town and nowhere else)usually a sgt major will be commisioned as an officer and they are usually on the ball and outstanding soldiers,both admin ways and communicating and i think their usual post would be as families officers ect.