page_title: Temporary gentlemen
section_title: Outbreak of war
hierarchical_section_title: Temporary gentlemen / First World War / Outbreak of war
caption_attribution_description: IWM caption&#160;: "Title: FIRST WORLD WAR: VICTORIA CROSS HOLDERS' PORTRAITS (GENERAL). Dorrell, George Thomas, L Battery, Royal Horse Artillery: Place and date of deed, Nery, France, 1 September 1914"
context_page_description: Temporary gentlemen is a term used to refer to officers of the British Army who held temporary commissions, particularly when such men came from outside the traditional officer class. Historically the officers of the British Army were drawn from the gentry and upper middle-classes and were expected to be gentlemen. The expensive uniforms and social expectations placed on officers prevented those without a private income from joining.
  The outbreak of the First World War required a rapid expansion in the size of the army and a corresponding increase in the officer corps. During the war more than 265,000 additional officers were recruited, many on temporary commissions. Many of these were drawn from the lower middle and working classes. They came to be referred to as "temporary gentlemen" with the expectation being that they would revert to their former social standing after the war. At the end of the war, many were unwilling to return to their former positions on reduced salaries and there were too few managerial positions to provide full employment, resulting in considerable hardship.
context_section_description: The pre-war British Army had long drawn its officers from the gentry and upper middle-classes, typically young men with public school (and sometimes university) education from families with long traditions of army or navy service.  Many pre-war regular officers had served in their school and university Officers' Training Corps and so had effectively been training for their role since the age of thirteen.  Officers of the time were expected to enjoy horse riding, hunting, polo and fine dining, the expense of which prevented those without a private means of income to supplement their salaries (such as lower-middle or working class men) from considering such a career.  At the outbreak of the war there were 10,800 officers in the British Army with an additional 2,500 in the Special Reserve and 10,700 in the Territorial Force, a shortfall of 2,000 compared to theoretical full strength.  During the next four years some 265,397 men became officers, mostly on temporary commissions - with the intention being that they would return to civilian life after the war was over.
  Some men were commissioned directly from the ranks in the early stages of the war, mainly senior non-commissioned officers (NCOs) and warrant officers from the regular army.  These included VC winners Sergeant-Major George Thomas Dorrell and Sergeant David Nelson of the Royal Artillery who distinguished themselves at the Action at Néry on 1 September 1914.  Men who took up this offer were discharged from the regular army and appointed to temporary commissions, a process that caused problems upon demobilisation when many wished to continue their service in the army.  Some found themselves in financial difficulty as officers did not receive a separation entitlement which was granted to other ranks to provide for their families whilst away on service.  As such many NCOs refused advancement on financial grounds and others had to be "forced to take commissions to their financial detriment".  The issue was partly remedied later in the war with the introduction of grants to all officers below the rank of major and allowances paid for officer's children.  By 1916 all subalterns received 7s 6d a day in pay, an initial £50 kit allowance, a 2s daily lodging allowance, 2s 6d daily field service allowance and free mess rations and travel.  Some patriotic civilian employers continued to pay half wages whilst on active service such that some temporary gentlemen found themselves quite well off.
  Former NCOs sometimes found the transition from holding authority over up to 1,000 men (as a regimental sergeant-major for example) to the more humble commands of a second lieutenant rather hard to stomach.  Some former rankers received hostility from their men for knowing too much of army life and being difficult to fool.  Not all officers promoted from the ranks were from the lower classes, many were ex-public school boys who had chosen to serve in the ranks or had missed out on commissions at the start of the war.
  The rapidly raised Kitchener's Army of the early months of the war turned first to volunteer retired officers to fill their vacancies prior to looking elsewhere.  Thus the majority of newly commissioned officers from this time were from the traditional classes with a spinkling of tradesmen, clerks and manufacturing workers, the latter particularly within the pals battalions.  There was considerable favouritism shown towards those who had attended public or grammar schools with Officer Training Corps (OTCs).  Indeed, even in this regard there was a bias towards the more well-known schools and not all former public school boys received a commission, many instead having to serve in the ranks.  There may have been no intention to select officers on the basis of class, merely a preference for prior military service such as that provided by the OTC; with the majority of OTCs being based at the major public schools this led to a bias towards those who had studied there.  Possibly because of this the officers of Kitchener's Army were, as a cohort, amongst the best educated to serve w
caption: George Thomas Dorrell was a pre-war non-commissioned officer who received a commission in 1914.[8]
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