The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1905-06-06
ADMIRAL TWELVE MONTHS OLD
Babies Who Held High Rank in Armies
and NaYies.
Began Drawing PAY From the Time
Their Commissions Were Signed.
MANY Baby Office From Ono to-
live Years Old-Bie BattleshiDs
Commanded by BeardIess BOYS

Commanded by BeardIess Bows
. 1T is often asserted nowadays that
our naval and military leaders are too
old for their work, that we want
younger men to direct our fleets and
armies, yet our naval officers COM
mence their professional careers at
twelve years of age and our army Off
GERS when very little older. A boy can
not cry we'll commence studying the
difficult art of war before he is twelve
much as he has tt learn; but our fore
fathers evidently thought otherwise,
for it is on record that in the eigh-
tenth century babies of three were
frequently appointed lieutenants in the
army; one officer, i'll fact, in 1913, was
given a commission on the day he was
born and once upon q time there was
a lord high admiral of only five years
OF age. These ~infantile warriors, how
ever, were not asked to go to war; the
only arms they knew Of were those of
$1,000 IoA'NC. III Jul % VI Illlc Jill
OF them Joined their ships or regi-
ments, but they, or their parents for
them, generally o good care to draw
their pay regularly from the day they
were given commissions. The military
infants were regular officers in his or
her majesty's army, their names ap-
peared in the regimental lists, they
were entitled to wear a uniform and
carry a sword, etc, and if any COM
mon soldier knew that they held COM
missions it was his duty to salute
them. We have no authentic record Of
such Il cerer Iony taking place, but it Is
very prOba lie that they were salu1ed
after their nurses.
ADMIRAL TWELVE MONTHS OLD.
iut the day of the baby warrior Is
past. There are too many reformeiS
looking for something to reform, too
many newspapers willing and anxious
to expose anything that savors of job
berry, for babies one day old to get
commissions to the army-unless, of
course, the recipient of the commission
happens to be a scion of royalty, as in
the case Of the cZarewitch, who was
Appointed colonel of more than one
RUSSIAN regiment long before he had
lSdIlcu ~ SUCH Ills IuuI1lD. lEuo, we
have an admiral only twelve months
old-the infant Marques of Donegal,
t0-wit, hereditary lord high admiral of
Tough Neagh, but the Office carries
with it neither emoluments nor duties.
1t is an obsolete naval command, which
dates from the time Of Queen Eliza
beth, when it was necessary to main,
tain a naval force on the Tough to keep
tho tnI1NI1lnnf Trich,1,nn f T-pNno
Derry, Armagh and Antrim in subjec-
50n,
. A baby warrior who was practically
born an officer and eventually became
General Sir William G.. Eustace, died
il February, 1850. He was born in
1913 in Dublin, his father, General
Eustace, being at the time commander
0 fthe forces in Ireland. This young
ster was gaZetted to a commission a
few hours after his birth. Sir William
of the forces in ireland. This young
officer, unless we include the case of
Molly Lepel, who received a cOrOnet's
commission as soon as she vas born
and received pay as such man years
after she was maid of honor, all of
which is vouched for in the LETTERS
of Horace Walpole. The commission
ii S1NSh W hC1 uS " III VI DClISlOl
for her parents.
YEAR-OLD ENSIGN.
OF baby officers of from one to five
years there have been several. In 1864
the twelve-months-Old son of the ia
nous Col. Piercy Kirke, of "Kirke's
Lambs was appointed ensign in the
Duchess of York's regiment, n four
years later General Lord Ettrick, h
son and heir of the Earl of Dumbarton,
was given a commission as captain in
the Royal Regiment of Foot by James
III. Lord Ettrick at the time was eigh
teen months old. 1t should be men
toned that the majority of these COM
| missions were intended as rewards for
] distinguished service by the fathers or
the neal relations of the children, the
pay of the latter naturally going to :ne
former. There was a cornet In the
Scots Guards about 1918 named Ag-
new, only three years of age, and the
granting of these child commissions
continued down to the eighteenth cen
fury. Major General A. NORM, who
died in January, 1889, at T~richinopoly,
asixty-five years old, served, according
to his biographers, the king and the
honorable East Indian Company for
sixty years. Another baby officer who
became a famous fighting man was
Field Marshal Sir John Foster F1tz-
gerald, but many others were placed on
half pay and never saw a shot fired In
anger in their lives.
The age at which these youngsters
were given commissions, however, a
but little influence upon their promo
ton to the higher ranks of the army.
PrOmOti0D until Cardwol1 and Clad
stone abolished the purchase of COM
missions, in nearly all cases went by
cash. In those good old days-Or a
old days, if the reader prefers it
colonies of seventeen and eighteen
were very plentiful. In 1894 General
Craig, writing from the Low Coun-
tries, mentions that ''Out of the fifteen
regiments of cavalry and twenty-SiX OF
srfnntrx- x-hiclA NO horo laoa.o txrontu-