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.
Sir William Robertson, 1st Baronet (1860–1933), is the only soldier in the history of the British Army to rise from an enlisted rank to its highest rank, field marshal. [2]
Hector MacDonald (1853–1903) enlisted in the Gordon Highlanders as a private at 17 and finished his career as a major general.
John Horsford (1751–1817) was a British soldier who rose through the ranks to become a major-general in the East India Company's Bengal Army.
Fitzroy Maclean (1911–1996) and Enoch Powell (1912–1998) both enlisted in the British Army as privates and rose to the rank of brigadier during the Second World War. Maclean became a major general after the war.
Sir John Elley (1764–1839) enlisted in the Royal Horse Guards as a private, fought in the Napoleonic Wars and rose to the rank of lieutenant general.
"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.
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