Abstract is: Field Marshal (FM) has been the highest rank in the British Army since 1736. A five-star rank with NATO code OF-10, it is equivalent to an Admiral of the Fleet in the Royal Navy or a Marshal of the Royal Air Force in the Royal Air Force (RAF). A Field Marshal's insignia consists of two crossed batons surrounded by yellow leaves below St Edward's Crown. Like Marshals of the RAF and Admirals of the Fleet, Field Marshals traditionally remain officers for life, though on half-pay when not in an appointment. The rank has been used sporadically throughout its history and was vacant during parts of the 18th and 19th centuries (when all former holders of the rank were deceased). After the Second World War, it became standard practice to appoint the Chief of the Imperial General Staff (later renamed Chief of the General Staff) to the rank on his last day in the post. Army officers occupying the post of Chief of the Defence Staff, the professional head of all the British Armed Forces, were usually promoted to the rank upon their appointment. In total, 141 men have held the rank of field marshal. The majority led careers in the British Army or the colonial Indian Army, rising through the ranks to eventually become a field marshal. Some members of the British Royal Family—most recently Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, and Charles III—were promoted to the rank after shorter periods of service. Three British monarchs—George V, Edward VIII, and George VI— assumed the rank on their accessions to the throne, while Edward VII and Charles III were already field marshals, and two British consorts—Albert, Prince Consort and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh—were appointed by their respective queens. Other ceremonial appointments were made as diplomatic gestures. Twelve foreign monarchs held the honour, though three (Wilhelm II, German Emperor; Franz Joseph I, Austrian Emperor; and Hirohito, Emperor of Japan) were stripped of it when their countries became enemies of Britain and her allies in the two world wars. Also awarded the rank were one Frenchman (Ferdinand Foch) and one Australian (Sir Thomas Blamey), honoured for their contributions to World War I and World War II respectively, and one South African statesman (Jan Smuts). A report commissioned by the Ministry of Defence in 1995 made a number of recommendations for financial savings in the armed forces' budget, one of which was the abolition of the five-star ranks. Part of the rationale was that these ranks were disproportionate to the size of the forces commanded by these officers and that none of the United Kingdom's close allies, such as the United States (which reserves the rank of general of the army for officers who have commanded large armies in major wars), used such ranks. The recommendation was not taken up in full, but the practice of promoting service chiefs to five-star ranks was stopped and the ranks are now reserved for special circumstances. Sir Peter Inge was, in 1994, the last active officer to be promoted to the rank. Inge relinquished the post of Chief of the Defence Staff (CDS) in 1997 and his successor, Sir Charles Guthrie, was the first officer not to be promoted upon appointment as CDS, although he was promoted to the honorary rank of field marshal in June 2012. The most recent promotions to field marshal came in 2012, eighteen years after the moratorium on routine promotions to the rank, when Queen Elizabeth II promoted Prince Charles, her son and heir apparent, to the five-star ranks in all three services, in recognition of support provided for her in her capacity as Head of the British Armed Forces. At the same time, Guthrie, who relinquished the post of CDS and retired from active service in 2001, was promoted to honorary field marshal. In June 2014 former Chief of the Defence Staff Lord Walker of Aldringham was also promoted to honorary field marshal. Although the rank of field marshal is not used in the Royal Marines, the insignia is used on the uniform of the Captain General, the ceremonial head of the corps (equivalent to colonel-in-chief).
military rank | Q56019 |
P646 | Freebase ID | /m/0wyptjc |
P17 | country | United Kingdom | Q145 |
P571 | inception | 1736-01-12 | |
P1705 | native label | Field marshal | |
P1611 | NATO code for grade | OF-10 | Q18536833 |
P3729 | next lower rank | general | Q5531654 |
P460 | said to be the same as | Marshal of the Royal Air Force | Q2452755 |
Admiral of the Fleet | Q2501631 | ||
Captain General Royal Marines | Q5036649 | ||
P910 | topic's main category | Category:British field marshals | Q7480459 |
Q335889 | Alan Brooke, 1st Viscount Alanbrooke |
Q55008046 | Albert I of Belgium |
Q4128248 | Alexander George Woodford |
Q1533807 | Alexander Velen |
Q18363 | Alfonso XIII |
Q2614047 | Alured Clarke |
Q4773085 | Anthony Methuen, 5th Baron Methuen |
Q633396 | Archibald Montgomery-Massingberd |
Q315540 | Archibald Wavell, 1st Earl Wavell |
Q3378403 | Arthur Barrett |
Q131691 | Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington |
Q152025 | Bernard Montgomery |
Q162306 | Birendra of Nepal |
Q5077333 | Charles Egerton |
Q335517 | Charles Guthrie, Baron Guthrie of Craigiebank |
Q5078912 | Charles Henry Brownlow |
Q43274 | Charles III of the United Kingdom |
Q1065334 | Charles Lennox, 3rd Duke of Richmond |
Q4307609 | Charles Moore, 1st Marquess of Drogheda |
Q5083770 | Charles Yorke |
Q2510732 | Claud Jacob |
Q312685 | Claude Auchinleck |
Q336049 | Colin Campbell, 1st Baron Clyde |
Q112857 | Count Palatine William of Gelnhausen |
Q2702479 | Cyril Deverell |
Q312564 | Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig |
Q334846 | Edmund Allenby, 1st Viscount Allenby |
Q335248 | Edmund Ironside, 1st Baron Ironside |
Q3719932 | Edward Blakeney |
Q163936 | Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset |
Q20875 | Edward VII |
Q590227 | Edward VIII |
Q335631 | Edwin Bramall, Baron Bramall |
Q162302 | Ernst August II of Hanover |
Q1359672 | Evelyn Wood |
Q192615 | Ferdinand Foch |
Q335138 | FitzRoy Somerset, 1st Baron Raglan |
Q335773 | Francis Grenfell, 1st Baron Grenfell |
Q1763476 | Francis Wogan Festing |
Q51056 | Franz Joseph I of Austria |
Q3086229 | François de La Rochefoucauld, marquis de Montendre |
Q3752735 | Frederick Haines |
Q335008 | Frederick Roberts, 1st Earl Roberts |
Q336077 | Garnet Wolseley, 1st Viscount Wolseley |
Q4081193 | Geoffrey Baker |
Q335779 | George Bingham, 3rd Earl of Lucan |
Q2558529 | George Hamilton, 1st Earl of Orkney |
Q4494695 | George Hay, 8th Marquess of Tweeddale |
Q4140861 | George Howard |
Q336288 | George Milne, 1st Baron Milne |
Q438578 | George Pollock |
Q3101971 | George Townshend, 1st Marquess Townshend |
Q269412 | George V |
Q1360330 | George Wade |
Q1359312 | George White |
Q2531866 | Gerald Templer |
Q67913 | Hans Ernst Karl, Graf von Zieten |
Q39168 | Harold Alexander, 1st Earl Alexander of Tunis |
Q332793 | Henry Hardinge, 1st Viscount Hardinge |
Q280748 | Henry Maitland Wilson, 1st Baron Wilson |
Q335133 | Henry Paget, 1st Marquess of Anglesey |
Q2348767 | Henry Seymour Conway |
Q466914 | Henry Wylie Norman |
Q336040 | Herbert Plumer, 1st Viscount Plumer |
Q5748331 | Hew Dalrymple Ross |
Q216129 | Horatio Kitchener |
Q335994 | Hugh Gough, 1st Viscount Gough |
Q335777 | Hugh Rose, 1st Baron Strathnairn |
Q2506905 | James Cassels |
Q2474776 | James O'Hara, 2nd Baron Tyrawley |
Q214321 | Jan Christiaan Smuts |
Q335063 | Jeffery Amherst, 1st Baron Amherst |
Q1382690 | Johann Jakob, Count of Bronckhorst and Anholt |
Q3809125 | John Byng, 1st Earl of Strafford |
Q335974 | John Campbell, 2nd Duke of Argyll |
Q338100 | John Campbell, 5th Duke of Argyll |
Q977028 | John Chapple |
Q335402 | John Colborne, 1st Baron Seaton |
Q335789 | John Dalrymple, 2nd Earl of Stair |
Q727175 | John Dill |
Q4485139 | John Forster FitzGerald |
Q1504395 | John Fox Burgoyne |
Q335059 | John French, 1st Earl of Ypres |
Q4470201 | John Griffin, 4th Baron Howard de Walden |
Q335743 | John Harding, 1st Baron Harding of Petherton |
Q2070667 | John Ligonier, 1st Earl Ligonier |
Q4298260 | John Michel |
Q334984 | John Vereker, 6th Viscount Gort |
Q6264023 | John Wilfred Stanier |
Q334974 | Julian Byng, 1st Viscount Byng of Vimy |
Q12971 | Leopold I of Belgium |
Q1149920 | Lintorn Simmons |
Q6679261 | Lord Frederick Cavendish |
Q4347175 | Lord William Paulet |
Q313110 | Mahendra I of Nepal |
Q337070 | Michael Carver, Baron Carver |
Q992668 | Michael Walker, Baron Walker of Aldringham |
Q1982244 | Neville Bowles Chamberlain |
Q3876718 | Nigel Bagnall |
Q7146594 | Patrick Grant |
Q336745 | Paul Methuen, 3rd Baron Methuen |
Q335917 | Peter Inge, Baron Inge |
Q77613 | Peter Melander Graf von Holzappel |
Q335717 | Philip Chetwode |
Q313771 | Prince Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge |
Q152245 | Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha |
Q160558 | Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn |
Q555313 | Prince Edward of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach |
Q158258 | Prince Edward, Duke of Kent |
Q157009 | Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn |
Q213573 | Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany |
Q435182 | Prince George, Duke of Cambridge |
Q117174 | Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester |
Q80976 | Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh |
Q701723 | Prince William Frederick, Duke of Gloucester and Edinburgh |
Q680982 | Prince William Henry, Duke of Gloucester and Edinburgh |
Q57331 | Qaboos bin Said Al Said |
Q4090435 | Richard Boyle, 2nd Viscount Shannon |
Q7325065 | Richard Dacres |
Q4495108 | Richard Hull |
Q4301081 | Richard Molesworth, 3rd Viscount Molesworth |
Q2072512 | Richard Temple, 1st Viscount Cobham |
Q335538 | Richard Vincent, Baron Vincent of Coleshill |
Q336474 | Robert Napier, 1st Baron Napier of Magdala |
Q4137912 | Roland Gibbs |
Q335752 | Rudolph Lambart, 10th Earl of Cavan |
Q4495134 | Samuel Hulse |
Q3713648 | Sir Donald Stewart, 1st Baronet |
Q5475350 | Sir George Nugent, 1st Baronet |
Q373940 | Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet |
Q4394948 | Sir Robert Rich, 4th Baronet |
Q607265 | Stapleton Cotton, 1st Viscount Combermere |
Q7628013 | Studholme Hodgson |
Q5772905 | Thomas Grosvenor |
Q8010848 | William Harcourt, 3rd Earl Harcourt |
Q154287 | William II of the Netherlands |
Q331448 | William Maynard Gomm |
Q336722 | William Nicholson, 1st Baron Nicholson |
Q438200 | William Robertson |
Q8017805 | William Rowan |
Q335033 | William Slim, 1st Viscount Slim |
Q7480459 | Category:British field marshals | category's main topic | P301 |
Q5531654 | general | next higher rank | P3730 |
uri / http://www.wikidata.org/entity/L475909-S1 | L475909-S1 | item for this sense | P5137 |
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