Rising from the ranks,through the ranks or commissioned from the ranks refers to enlisted soldiers being commissioned as officers. In class-conscious societies of the past, such as Britain during the Victorian era, for example, this was a relatively rare occurrence.
Despite the nickname "the little corporal", Napoleon did not rise from the ranks. (He was commissioned a second lieutenant after graduating from military school.) However, he did famously state, "Tout soldat français porte dans sa giberne le bâton de maréchal de France." ("Every French soldier carries the baton of a marshal of France in his knapsack.") That is, any soldier could attain such a lofty rank. And indeed, many seized the opportunities opened to them by the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars to serve as such under his command, including:
An 1857 report stated the following numbers of non-commissioned officers received commissions in the British Army: [1]
British soldiers promoted from the ranks during the two World Wars were sometimes known as temporary gentlemen.
| Generals | Enlisted | Rank attained | Date attained | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| John Horsford (1751–1817) | 1772 (East India Company) | Major general | June 1811 | Major-general in the East India Company's Bengal Army |
| Sir John Elley (1764–1839) | 1789 (Royal Regiment of Horse Guards) | Lieutenant general | 10 January 1837 | Fought in the Napoleonic Wars |
| Major general | August 1819 | |||
| Sir William Robertson, 1st Baronet (1860–1933) | 1877 (Trooper, 16th (The Queen's) Lancers) | Field marshal | 29 March 1920 | Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS) (1916-18), Only soldier in the history of the British Army to rise from an enlisted rank to its highest rank [2] |
| General | 23 December 1915 | |||
| Lieutenant general | 13 September 1914 | |||
| Major general | 13 September 1914 | |||
| Brigadier | 29 November 1907 | |||
| Hector MacDonald (1853–1903) | 1870 (Inverness-shire Highland Rifle Volunteers) | Major general | 26 March 1902 | |
| Brigadier | October 1899 | |||
| Fitzroy Maclean (1911–1996) | 1939 (Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders) | Major general | 16 June 1947 | Rose to the rank of brigadier during the Second World War |
| Brigadier | April 11th, 1944 | |||
| Enoch Powell (1912–1998) | 1939 (Royal Warwickshire Regiment) | Brigadier | 3 May 1945 | Rose to the rank of brigadier during the Second World War |
"Mustang" is American military slang for soldiers who rise from the ranks. Notable mustangs include:
In military fiction, this is a not uncommon trope, Richard Sharpe being a prime example.
In Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers , the main character Juan "Johnny" Rico enlists in the Mobile Infantry as a private, and later receives a direct appointment to lieutenant.
 | This military-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |