Officer Recruitment: The Decline in Social Eliteness in the Senior Ranks of the British Army

This chapter looks at the background of Britain’s senior Army officers over the 21 year period immediately following Otley’s predictions. Otley examined the educational background of British Army officers over the period 1855 to 1971 and argued that reference to the educational background was an appropriate method by which to measure the social eliteness of a group in British society. Otley’s major prediction was that the British Army would come more to reflect society in the composition of its leadership. Otley’s study follows a tradition that uses educational background as a means of determining the eliteness of social background when examining the membership of British institutions. Otley’s study touched only lightly upon the role of university education as an insight into the determination of the social origins of the British generals.