Regarding "Gentility"

[Calvin1509]

I am currently finishing up my BOTP training and one of our assignments asks the question:

What is the historical basis of "gentility" amongst officers and how do we refer to this code of conduct at CFLRS?

I am in the Reserves and am doing my leadership training at the London Battle School. However, we have not touched at all on "gentility."  I have searched high and low for answers on this question but to no avail.

Another question is:

How in your words would you describe the fighting spirit?

Is this a motto in the CF that has a significant background or is it just as obvious as it seems -- basically a determined attitude that never gives in or gives up no matter what adversity one may face?

I would appreciate any insights into these questions. Thanks!

 

[Fishbone Jones]

My insight says...........you're trying to get us to do your homework!!! ;D

 

[niner domestic]

Your high and low searches must have missed the literature and analysis on Jane Austen's works.  You can't read anything by her or about her works and not know what gentility means and how it finds its historical roots in the commissioning of an Officer.

 

[Journeyman]

If Jane Austen is too high-brow,1  think Richard Gere, "An Officer and a Gentleman."2 (my emphasis)


-----------------------------
1. Mark Twain: "Jane Austen? Why, I go so far as to say that any library is a good library that does not contain a volume by Jane Austen. Even if it contains no other book."  ;D

2. And then put that crappy movie out of your mind forever.

 

[niner domestic]

Maybe he should just look up James Baby and Frederick Middleton - both I believe demonstrated the difference between just being respectable to that of possessing gentility.

 

[Dominus]

You may also look at the works of Patrick O'Brian.  In particular the Master and Commander series and its attached appendixes, as the difference between the Nobility or Gentility of the officers and midshipsmen and the sailors in the British Navy during the "age of sail" were quite marked.  As officers had to be from the ranks of high society or at least own land and sailors were usually from the poorer communities and lower classes.  The midshipsmen in particular were an interesting phenomena as boys as young as 8 or 9 commanded the respect of the enlisted crew simply because of their birthright. These boys were assumed to be leaders on an almost genetic level. It was as if somehow the nobility were born to lead and everyone else was born to obey the landowners.  In this sense, the status of Officer, even in the CF, is one of the last vestiges of Fuedalism in Western Culture.

 

[Calvin1509]

Thanks for the help folks. 9D, I have Jane Austen's works on my bookshelf. I've never been a big fan, but I'll give them some consideration.

 

[medaid]

Oh OH! Try the Sharpe series ;D I'm reading it and it explains 'gentility' just fine!

 

[Quag]

Wow...either you are dozing in class, or they are not teaching you they are forgetting to incorporate this stuff.  This stuff was beat into my head...Just think...EDI style...over and over again

 

[brihard]

Oh OH! Try the Sharpe series ;D I'm reading it and it explains 'gentility' just fine!

That's actually a pretty good suggestion- 'compare and contrast' can be a great learning technique. It works for me, anyway.

Plus the books rock.  ;D

 

[medaid]

Thank goodness we don't rib the 'rankers' anymore... or else I'd be in a world of hurt. See... I can't just go and beat up incompetent superiors like Sharpe