Over the last hundred years we have become used to inflation and the need to have regular increases in pay. This has not always been the case. In researching salary increases in the British Army, it is quite clear that this wasn’t the case between 1686, when James II decided to keep a standing army following the defeat of the Duke of Monmouth’s Rebellion and 1762 (towards the end of the 7 Years War).
Whether there was general deflation , or just that there was the need to keep government spending down, pay in the Army basically remained static. There were some appointments that attracted increases, notably in the Dragoon Guard Regiments, while the Line Regiments remained static. The Royal Ordnance – later the Royal Artillery saw substantial decreases; for example a Sergeant’s pay reduced by 30% between 1693 and 1756, as did the pay of Matrosses.
Naturally, the pay rates shown in the table below are in “old Money” i.e. Pounds, Shillings and pence. For those who are unfamiliar with this form of money, there were 20 shillings to the pound and 12 pence to the shilling thus One pound, ten shillings and sixpence is indicated as £1 10s 6d while 10 shillings and sixpence would be shown as 10/6
When the currency was decimalised in 1971, 2 shillings became 20p while 6d became 5p.
So a Captain in the Dragoon Guards in 1747 was paid 15/6 the equivalent of 80 pence per day in today’s money. To put this in some sort of perspective: A Captain in a cavalry regiment in 1899 was paid 11/7 which, by applying inflation from 1900 to date means that he would be paid £60.33 per day now. (The current pay rate of a Captain in the British army today is £38,463 pa or £105.38 per day)
| Rates of Pay |
Pay per day |
|||||
|
Regiments of Foot |
Dragoon Guards |
|||||
| Year |
1686 |
1702 |
1762 |
1686 |
1747 |
|
| Col |
12/ |
12/ |
12/ |
£1 6s |
19/6 |
|
| Lt Col |
7/ |
7/ |
7/ |
£1 |
£1 4s 3d |
|
| Maj |
5/ |
5/ |
5/ |
£1 |
£1 0s 6d |
|
| Chaplain |
6/8 |
6/8 |
6/8 |
6/8 |
6/8 |
|
| Surgeon |
6/6 |
6/6 |
4/ |
6/ |
6/ |
|
| Adjutant |
4/ |
4/ |
4/ |
5/ |
5/ |
|
| Capt |
8/ |
8/ |
8/ |
14/ |
15/6 |
|
| Lt. |
4/ |
4/ |
4/ |
10/ |
9/ |
|
| Ens |
3/ |
3/ |
3/ |
9/ |
8/ |
|
| Sgt |
1/6 |
1/6 |
1/6 |
|
2/9 |
|
| Corp |
1/ |
1/ |
1/ |
3/ |
2/3 |
|
| Private |
8d |
8d |
8d |
2/6 |
1/9 |
|
|
Royal Ordnance |
||||||
| Year |
1693 |
1702 |
1756 |
|||
| Engineer |
10/ |
10/ |
|
|||
| Capt |
12/ |
10/ |
10/ |
|||
| Lt |
8/ |
6/ |
5/ |
|||
| Sgt |
3/ |
2/6 |
2/ |
|||
| Corp |
2/6 |
2/ |
1/10 |
|||
| Master Gunner |
|
|
|
|||
| gunner |
2/ |
1/6 |
1/4 |
|||
| Firemaster |
|
|
|
|||
| Fireworker |
|
4/ |
3/ |
|||
| Bombadier |
|
2/ |
1/8 |
|||
| Matrosses |
1/6 |
1/ |
1/ |
|||
| pioneer |
1/2 |
1/ |
|
|||
British Army Historical Database 