Activity of the Commission for Civil Service for Upgrading the System of Training, Manning and Equipping the Army Officer Corps of Great Britain in the 1870s
The article contains the results of the definition of the place and role of activity for upgrading the system of training, manning, and equipping the army Officer Corps the Civil Service Commission took in the context of military reforms in the 1860-1870s. The author investigates the factors, which determined transfer of functions for selection of candidates for officer posts. The mechanisms of decision-making are revealed, which mechanisms are based on the opinions of special commissions and authoritative state figures as to the necessity of involvement of the Commission in arrangement and conducting entrance examination at the higher military educational institution of Great Britain (i.e., Royal Military Academy in Woolwich, and Royal Military College in Sandhurst), as well as other forms of substitution of junior officer ranks in the army of the United Kingdom. The research is based on the analysis of reports of the Commission for the period from 1870 through 1880. Study of the documents allowed for distinguishing three stages in the activity carried out by the establishment holding examinations for joining the army. The changes in the activity of the Commission are determined by transformation of the army Officer Corps resulted from comprehensive reforms in the structure of the land forces of Great Britain in the 1860-1870s. Foreign analysts poorly studied activity of the Civil Service Commission and its place in upgrading the system of training, manning, and equipping the army Officer Corps of the United Kingdom. National British studies set the problems for the first time ever.