page_title: Temporary gentlemen
section_title: Use of the term in the Portuguese Army
hierarchical_section_title: Temporary gentlemen / Use of the term in the Portuguese Army
caption_attribution_description: O alferes miliciano comando Briote (à esquerda), na base aérea de Bissalanca, em Bissau, juntamente com o Furriel Azevedo (ao centro) e o Sargento Valente (à diereita). Foto de 1965 ou 1966.
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 term milicianos was used in reference to conscript officers in the Portuguese Army of the 1960s and 1970s and has been translated as "temporary gentlemen".  The Portuguese at this time were involved in a number of wars in their colonies including the Guinea-Bissau War of Independence.  During these wars there was considerable friction between the milicianos and the regular army officers. The regulars described the milicianos as "just doctors or lawyers in uniform and stated that "when they were meant to patrol, they simply crawled into a bunker".  One miliciano lieutenant stated "In Guinea the anti-war feeling was very strong among the milicianos.  Bissau was a beastly place.  We had a very common saying: 'I'm fed up with this place! I'm fed up with them [the regular officers]! Get me out of here!'  This feeling was reciprocated by the professional officers.  The milicianos felt that they were being used to do the dirty work".
  Tensions were exacerbated by a series of decrees made by defence minister, Horácio de Sá Viana Rebelo in June 1973.  These allowed milicianos to convert their temporary commissions into permanent regular army commissions via a two-semester course at the national military academy and to count conscript service time for seniority purposes.  Seniority was very important in the Portuguese Army of this period with almost all promotions based on this alone, without regard to individual merit.  The new decrees upset many regular officers who found themselves leapfrogged by junior former-conscript officers, there were reportedly cases of former miliciano captains being promoted to the rank of colonel ahead of regular army lieutenant-colonels.  The discontent of regular officers was one of the causes of the 25 April 1974 Carnation Revolution in which the regular armed forces overthrew the civilian dictatorship government.
caption: A Portuguese miliciano ensign (left), with a senior corporal and sergeant in Guinea-Bissau, 1965
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