Appendix VIII: Intakes to Army Basic Training Units, 1949–60
1H refers to the first half of each year and 2H refers to the second half. The proportion of men in the highest educational categories was usually higher in the second half of each year – when school leavers and men finishing apprenticeships entered the forces. The intake was divided into national servicemen (NS) and regulars. Figures for potential officers and potential NCO’s were, however, given for both categories together.
Potential officers (OR1s) were identified when they first arrived in the army. Almost all of these were drawn from the top four educational levels and most were drawn from the top three. Only a minority of OR1s actually became officers. The proportion of OR1s in the intake peaked (at 10%) in the second half of 1955. There is a marked correlation between the number of potential officers and the number of men in the top three educational levels.
The number of men identified as potential NCOs increased towards the end of national service and seems to bear some relation to the number of men in educational level 5, i.e. the skilled working class.
Educational Levels
Educational Level 1 refers to graduates. One would expect this to increase consistently because the proportion of the men going to university increased and also because the last intakes of national servicemen were largely composed of men who had deferred and all graduates would have been deferred. However, the proportion of graduates in the intake actually peaked in the second half of 1955. Presumably this is because educated men became better at avoiding service and the authorities became more likely to tolerate such evasion.
Educational Level 2 refers to men with some higher education. It seems to have been used, in the early stages, to refer to men with university entrance scholarships – John Masterman, who chaired the Army Educational Council at that time, took such matters seriously.
Educational Level 3 refers to men who left school at eighteen with qualifications that would make them eligible for university entrance. Most public school boys would have belonged to this category and the army seems to have particularly valued such men as officers. The proportion of men in this category peaked in the second half of 1950 – presumably because, after this date, increasing numbers of men deferred to go to university.
Educational Level 4 refers to men who left school at sixteen with the General Certificate of Education. This category included a large number of grammar school boys. It peaked in the second half of 1958.
Educational Level 5 refers to men who had left school at the earliest possible age (fourteen until 1947 and then fifteen) but who had acquired some additional education (at night classes, for example) or performed well on tests when they entered the forces. This would include large numbers of apprentice-trained workers. They increased as a proportion of entrants until almost the end of national service. In its last stages, conscription fell heavily on the skilled working class. When first discussing ways to end the call-up, Iain Macleod, the Minister of Labour and National Service, had wanted, in effect, to exempt skilled workers. The fact that he failed, and that these men continued to be conscripted when men with the highest education levels were frequently escaping, suggests the extent to which national service was structured by social class.
Educational Level 6 refers to men who had left school at the earliest possible age and acquired no further education. This meant, in large measure, unskilled workers. Most regular soldiers were drawn from this category. The proportion of national servicemen in this category peaked in the first half of 1951.
Educational Level 7 refers to men whose performance on tests was below the level expected of men with the minimum period of education. It included many who were regarded as semi-literate. The proportion of national servicemen who belonged to this category peaked in 1949, when the intake included many whose education had been disrupted by the war and when the effect of professional deferment was to remove many of the ablest working-class boys from the intake.
Educational Level 8 refers to illiterates: men unable to fill in a form even with help. The proportion of men of Educational Level 8 in the intake peaked in the first half of 1952, when the needs of the Korean War had forced the army to take men who would normally have been rejected.
Source: WO 384/12-40, editions of the ‘Abstract of Army Statistics’.