Mr. Kipling's Army

by Byron Farwell

Book Overview

This is an upstairs-downstairs view of the Victorian-Edwardian army, one of the world's most peculiar fighting forces. The battles it fought are household words, but the idiosyncracies and... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393013863
• ISBN13: 9780393013863
• Release Date: January 1981
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.

Customer Reviews

A Gem

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.

An Eccentric View of The Victorian Army

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.

Back When Men Were Men and Sailors Were Dates!

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 Great Little Book

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.

A classic account of the British Victorian Era Army

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.