Regimental Welfare

The treatment of soldiers wives seems pretty grim, and so it was. However the attitude of the CO and the regimental officers were very important: a welfare minded Regiment could make up for much of the official callousness. Many officers did a great deal for their men’s families not only by enjoyable means such as holding a matter theatrical or charity balls to raise money for the regimental welfare fund, but in much less fun ways such as visiting all the local worthies and trying to persuade them to employ a soldier’s wife. (The image of British officers usually portrayed in novels and films is of arrogant fops who never lifted a finger for their men is simply not true.) The Duke of York, to, as commander-in-chief was very sympathetic to soldiers and their families. The Duke is now mostly only remembered the nursery rhyme about him, which is a lampoon on the disastrous campaign he commanded in Flanders in 1793, but in our period he was known as ” The Soldier’s Friend”, since he worked hard to clean up army Administration and ensure that British soldiers actually got anything they were entitled to, and made several reforms aimed at making life less grim for them.

next in the series Wasted Talent

reproduced by kind permission of the author Victoria Solt Dennis