DISCHARGES FROM THE ARMY BY PURCHASE
The following is taken from Skelley (1977):
Military discipline was very difficult for some soldiers to deal with. When their treatment by Officers and Non-Commissioned Officers was more than the undisciplined soldier could abide, insubordination and desertion were normally the outcome of the situation. To remedy this, the Army attempted to introduce a system that would make it easier for men to get out of the service if they felt that they had made a wrong choice in enlisting. There were provisions to allow men to purchase a discharge, the cost of which was £100 within the first three months of service and £18 thereafter. These costs were normally beyond the reach of the average soldier. At times proposals were considered which could have modified the scale of payments, but these generally came to nothing.
The following table shows the number of discharges from the Army granted by purchase during the period from 1861 to 1898:
Year |
Number of Discharges Purchased |
Year |
Number of Discharges Purchased |
1861 |
2,217 |
1880 |
2,645 |
1862 |
1,614 |
1882 |
2,209 |
1864 |
1,662 |
1884 |
1,853 |
1866 |
2,399 |
1886 |
1,770 |
1868 |
2,031 |
1888 |
1,339 |
1870 |
1,493 |
1890 |
1,584 |
1872 |
2,839 |
1892 |
1,467 |
1874 |
2,653 |
1894 |
1,236 |
1876 |
2,853 |
1896 |
1,430 |
1878 |
2,058 |
1898 |
1,574 |
The high cost of purchasing a discharge only served to encourage acts of desperation in some men. In some cases men were known to mutilate themselves to obtain a medical discharge. More frequently they deserted. Short-service enlistments in theory provided an escape valve by shortening the minimum period of service with the Colours, but the first period of limited engagement with the Colours, six years originally, later raised to seven, was in fact still too long for many men to endure.
REFERENCE:
SKELLEY, A.R. The Victorian Army at Home: The Recruitment and Terms and Conditions of the British Regular, 1859-1899. McGill-Queen’s University Press, Montreal, 1977.