The Irish Landed Class and the Regular Officer Corps of the British Army, c. 1775-1900

This thesis examines the involvement of the Irish landed class with the regular officer corps of the British Army from the 1770s until the start of the twentieth century. A key source of officers, their commitment to military service became central to their collective sense of identity, something they had in common with other regional elites within the British Isles and on the continent. This period saw their evolution, from a national-regional elite within the Hanoverian composite state seeking access to state service; to one that, as a result of global war, insurrection and constitutional change, had by 1815 become integrated into a broader British imperial ruling class; to be followed, as their domestic political and economic position declined, by an increased focus on military service that by 1900 had given them some characteristics of a military-imperial service class. Yet their often-difficult political relationship with the mass of their mainly Catholic countrymen was accompanied by a complex relationship with the British state. Predominantly Protestant and overwhelmingly Unionist, their privileged status depended ultimately on British power, but though the British government sustained their position for decades and availed of their services, it was in the end prepared to sacrifice their interests in the face of wider political considerations. By charting the military involvement of 200 Irish landed families, this study sets out to answer three linked questions: the extent of their military engagement, how their routes to commissions and subsequent career patterns changed over time, and how their experience compares with that of their counterparts in Great Britain and Prussia.