Customer Reviews

Mr. Kipling's Army: All the Queen's Men

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This book provides a comprehensive survey of the Victorian army during the height of the Great British Empire. Mr. Farwell is something of an expert on this period and his lucid writing is a joy to read. The book brings out the many varied living conditions that existed in the British army of that time. This is more social history than pure military fare, but don't let that discourage the perspective reader. This is not dry stuff about living conditions in the Victorian army, the book is full of amusing anedotes from actual living Victorian soldiers.

They were a peculiar lot these Soldiers of the Queen, who cherished all their old traditions. The army was extremely conservetive in outlook, from Prviate to General. The regiment was the key element which kept it all together. The British army has always been a regimental army, and this was never more so than in the 19th Century. The army proved extremly adaptive to fighting in all the varied conditions within the Empire, and while this abundance of expereince gave it a unique espirit-de-corps, it did not prepare it well to fight any European conflicts. The British only barely managed to field a few full strength Corps at the beginning of the Great War in 1914. This was in no small way due to the Reforms of Edward Cardwell who created a reserve by linking many of the single battalion regiments together in the 1880s thereby establishing some form of reserve pool of manpower. The system just managed to hold the army together, but created many animosities between time-honored regiments who disliked being linked to each other in adinistractive fashion.

The book goes to great lengths to explain the huge social gulf between officers and enlisted men. The British army was stratified to a degree that no other army of the period entertained. It was an 18th century notion which struggled on into the next century. Farwell brings out these and many other fascinating details as he illustrates the daily life of the Victorian soldier. Those interested in the period of Queen Victoria's Little Wars won't want to put this one down. Its full of fascinating tid-bits of people like Kitchener, Charles Gordon, Wolsley, Frederick Roberts and Churchill, as well as the common soldiers and officers that made up the army. Also, anyone interested in the social anatomy of an army and the society to which it belonged should also find it most rewarding. There are many such Victorian studies out there, but few address the army, which perhaps reflected the age more directly than any other English institution of the time.

Having just finished Lawerence James' "Rise and Fall of the British Empire", I felt like sticking with the Brits for a while, and picked up this great little book. Farwell's style is excellent and his humorous little anecdotes about life in the Victorian/Edwardian British Army make for fascinating reading. Not really a history book it covers the "sociology" of the British Army of the late 1800s-early 1900s. It was a stratified society, with gentleman officers and "other ranks" drawn from people who weren't so well bred. Not for the politically correct, though.

Mr. Farwell's books are an unflinching glimpse back when the sun never set on the British Empire because God wouldn't trust the buggers in the dark. I look forward to reading and re-reading everyone of his books, and keep them as a ready and accurate reference.

At a time when Great Britain could only offer a spell in the Gin Mill, the Cotton Mill, the Navy or an adventure in "Inja," many took the King's Shilling to do the King's work. It was pure, hard, basic soldiering and Mr. Farwell has captured it in a well written manner. Even Lord Wellington described his British force in Spain (fighting against Napoleon) as "the scum of the earth...the absolute scum of the earth." But Wellington's scum eventually beat Napoleon and conquered and held a vast portion of this globe. The British Army "squares" held until World War I. If you like Kipling, and a glimpse at what really went on, then you will like any of Mr. Farwell's offerings.

A superb telling of the British military during the Victorian era. Filled with interesting facts, personalities, battles, customs, and a detailed insight into the uneven division between officers and the ranks. I recommend all of Mr Farwell's works, all of them are modern top-notch classics.

As an unrepentent Anglophile and devoted reader of anything to do with British military history, I have no idea how I could have missed this marvelous volume over all the years since its publication. Treating with the British Army during the Victorian and Edwardian eras, Farwell tells his story with clarity, sympathy, and a fair measure of entirely appropriate humor, portraying the petty prejudices and fusty foibles of the army with rich anecdotes and personal recollections. Wellington on more than one occasion referred to his men as "the scum of the earth" and they called him "that hookedy-nosed Old Bastard", but that "scum" and their successors in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were seldom found wanting for either courage or fighting ability and were regarded by most other nations as man-for-man the best soldiers in the world. The British Army that necessarily evolved during the First World War may have emerged from that conflict better educated, better trained, and perhaps even better led than their forebears, but the blood shed in the trenches washed away many of the traditions and, for lack of a better term, charm, of the "Old Army", the qualities lovingly portrayed in this too-short work. Read this book alone or in conjunction with the equally delightful "Redcoat" by Richard Holmes which comes at the same subject from another angle and covers a broader span of time. Both are extremely well-written, uniquely informative, and "musts" for any British military library; I'm only sorry it took me so long to add Farwell's to mine.

This is a hilarious book, if you enjoy viewing the British from an anthropological point of view. A mildly informative book from a military point of view, as it focuses more on the sociology of the British army, than on pure military history. If one is very P.C., then there will be much to displease you. A great read! And be glad you weren't an "other-ranks" in said British Army.

There was No British Army in the 19th Century! There was however a great collection of some real fighting Regiments that went out and made a huge portion of the world part of the largest Empire the world has seen so far. It was not until Cardwell & Wolesey that the British started to assemble an Army that could hold off the Germans at Mons in August 1914. If your interest is that you want to know a lot about the Tommy Atkins & his Officers. That and of the various ways & units he lived in and fought with then go no further. Its a fine story and worth the time.

A superb book. I had a rather vacant weekend recently and fortunately this book arrived a day before. Superb, highly entertaining stories on the pre-World War I British Army covering subjects as diverse as discipline, officers, enlisted men, religion, women (there were few of them-wives, sweethearts, prostitutes), drink (there was way too much of that), the importance of regimental loyalty,-see chapter titles for a full list. This does for the British army of the later 19th century what Don Rickey's FORTY MILES A DAY ON BEANS AND HAY accomplished for the American frontier army but is far more readable and enjoyable, even though the Indian Wars period is my main area of interest and research.

One drawback to the book--there are no footnotes or bibliography so we are left guessing where Mr. Farwell culled all these wonderful stories, tidbits and insights from. The book is so readable though and I am not a tracking down sources to write something myself, so this is easily forgiven. Enjoy!

As we vomit the politically-correct, revisionist approach to history out of our American collective consciousness, it is refreshing to look through 60's, 70's and early 80's products and find a book as non-revisionist as this. Three cheers Mr. Farwell. Your book is not only interesting, it is enlightening as well.

I read this while I was on vacation at the home of a relative who is a retired member of the U.S. military. I had recently reread one of Kipling's novels, and was curious about the British army in his era. The book is fascinating! It gets off to a slow start in the first chapter, with long explanations about the changing numbers and names of the regiments, but once past the first chapter, you are plunged into a bygone era where the British military was a tiny society of its own, with all kinds of touching and infuriating stories.

For example, I was astonished to read that the women married to enlisted men drew lots as to whether they would accompany their husbands to a new post, and in at least one instance, where the wife was not selected to accompany her husband, she never saw him or their little son again.

I was also surprised to see how cut off from the enlisted men the officer class was, to the extent that in some regiments, officers did not know the enlisted men's names, except during wartime, when they had closer contact. The book is filled with fascinating pieces of information like that and is illustrated with contemporary drawings.