King's Own Royal Regiment Museum

© Images are copyright, Trustees of the King's Own Royal Regiment Museum.
 You must seek permission prior to publication of any of our images.

A Soldier’s Life 1870-1900

The final decades of the 19th Century were a period of change and reform in British society and this was reflected in the army. Recruits came from towns rather than the countryside. Soldiers saw improvements in their living conditions and pay as a result of reforms. Through the period the army offered stable employment, and a good life.

Recruiting

The Cardwell Reforms revised the terms of service for ordinary soldiers to encourage young men to join the army. Recruits now enlisted for twelve years - the first six with the Colours (Regular Army), the remainder in the Reserve. This was later altered to seven years and five.

If army recruiting was going particularly well more men could be encouraged to move to the Reserve. Thus the average age of soldiers was lowered and the number of old soldiers, often addicted to rough behaviour, heavy drinking and hard swearing, was reduced.

Soldiers were now able to ‘purchase’ their discharge - so it was possible for them to leave the army. The cost was more than their annual pay - £18.

The army could be seen as one way of escaping poverty at home. Of a total of 178,064 men in the army, in the last quarter of the 19th Century, almost 25% came from depressed rural areas and city slums. Rural poverty in Ireland may account for the fact that 39,121 of the soldiers were Irish.

From the 1870s fewer recruits were coming from the countryside. The industrialisation of Britain had shifted the population to urban areas and the majority of recruits were leaving city slums, rather than depressed rural areas.

In 1870 the Elementary Education Act brought some level of compulsory education to all children. More and more recruits were literate and harder to deceive than the county recruits of twenty years before.

The appeal of the army:

Pay

The army offered secure employment and regular pay.

Soldiers were paid four times a month, on the 1st, 8th, 15th, and 22nd of each month. On each pay day there was a notable increase in the number of men who were drunk and rowdy. This was not uncommon amongst civilian contemporaries.

The pay of the Private soldier was increased to one shilling a day in the 1880s. However, a number of deductions for such things as groceries, tea, and washing clothes were made. Meat and bread were free. Other improvements in living conditions were made. Higher ranks were far better off.

Daily Rates of Pay: 1880s:

If a soldier was married his children were educated free.

Promotion

Younger soldiers now found promotion easier, based upon education and hard work. Non-Commissioned Officers (NCOs) had a slightly easier time than Privates. NCOs did not have to do basic fatigue work, such as orderly duties and cooking, however they held positions of responsibility over the men in their charge. NCOs needed to read orders and regulations, write reports, keep accounts and have the ability to lead their men.

Food

Early each morning meat and bread for the Company would be collected from the stores. The meat was placed in a string bag and taken to the cook house. Each string bag had a wooden tag to identify the Company and Mess to which it had to be returned, once cooked. Meat was issued at three quarters of a pound per man (uncooked) and it was likely that the meat would be in one large joint and a number of small pieces to make the weight. Meat was not always of the best quality. After breakfast the men would peel potatoes and other vegetables which were also taken to the cook house.

Soldiers would take it in turns to work in the cook house, usually about one month at a time. Some were better than others and if a good cook was found he would have his time there extended.

A Typical Day:

Soldiers could request permission to be out of barracks overnight, as long as they had returned by 06.00 the following morning. This avoided the risk of being fined for being drunk in the barracks.

© Images are copyright, Trustees of the King's Own Royal Regiment Museum.
 You must seek permission prior to publication of any of our images.