British Army Officers Ranks

**Keith** · 08-14-2009, 03:12 PM

Hi All,

A question that arose during a T.A. lecture was why is a General higher than a Major General.
The ranking of generals was based mainly on the on service previous to reaching general status, a short explanation is.

Officers who have reached general status from the ranks were named fully as,
Brigadeer General, brigadeer being another name for sergeant.
Major General, being a shortened form of Sgt.Major General.
Lt . General signifying the promotion was from existing officer status.
Of course the rank General being highest of all general rankings.

This was fully brought home to me once while serving in Austria, when my WOII informed me we were going over the border into Italy, to meet the local Brigadeer.
Having taken more care than normal with my kit, to find out on arrival it was the local border guard sergeant.

Cheers
Keith

**Adrian Roberts** · 08-14-2009, 08:58 PM

Keith
This is easier to understand if we remember that these are definitions that go back many centuries. The ranks of Lieutenant-General and Major-General go back at least to the English Civil War; Cromwell was given the rank of Lt-General.

And as you say, these have different meanings in different nations. In France, a Brigadier is a Corporal in a Cavalry Regiment; whereas what we call a Brigadier, (previously a Brigadier-General) is in French a "General de Brigade" (I wonder if Conan Doyle appreciated this when he invented his character "Brigadier Gerard").

In the Navy, it was slightly different : an Admiral commanded a battle fleet; his Vice-Admiral led the other of the two lines in which the fleet sailed into battle, and the Rear-Admiral literally co-ordinated the rear of the lines, attempting to interpret the orders from the front of the line. (The term "Battleship" was originally, in the sailing fleet, a "Line-of-Battle Ship").