Mr. Kipling's Army

by Byron Farwell

An eye-opening, extravagant, always lively look at a peculiar British institution--the Victorian-Edwardian army that was eclipsed by various reforms and died forever at the first battle of Ypres in World War I. These were the ""real,"" the professional British soldiers, moss-bounds who wore customs, traditions, and habits like heavy armor. After the Indian Mutiny in 1857-59, there were three Indian armies: one each in Bengal, Bombay, and Madras. In England, until a General Staff was created in 1906, the Army was a mere collection of regiments, totally muddled and directionless, with no provision for movement or attacking anyone anywhere; it had no central governing body, and drew its officers from well-heeled young Mayfair bloods who sat a horse well. Its officers dressed for the benefit of London tailors; its footsoldiers and noncoms would ritualistically spit and polish themselves to the hilt for their nightly walk from the barracks-room to the canteen to get drunk. Alcoholism plague