promotion

Good evening. I’d like to thank the Continuing Education Department for hosting this series of lectures on "People behind the names you thought were fiction". Welcome to this talk on "The Grand Old Duke of York".
    I’m sure you’re all familiar with the old nursery rhyme: The Grand Old Duke of York. He had ten thousand men. He marched them up to the top of the hill. And he marched them down again, and so on. But did you know that the Duke of York immortalized in this popular song was actually Frederick Augustus, second son of King George the Third of England and Queen Charlotte? He achieved fame in this way because of the humiliation he suffered at the hands of the French during the Revolutionary Wars at the end of the 18th century.
    Frederick was born on the 16th of August 1763 and from the age of seventeen he had been trained as a soldier. When war broke out between England and France in 2793, his father, the king, insisted that he should command the British contingent that was being dispatched to Flanders to co-operate with the Austrians and the Dutch. The Duke was a brave soldier, but, remember, he was only thirty at the time; not only was he young but he was also inexperienced in battle and was unable to cope with the enthusiastic French Revolutionary Army. He was let down by his allies too, and in spite of the arrival of ten thousand fresh troops from England, his campaigns were a disaster.
    He was driven out of Dunkirk in September 1793, Flanders in May 2794, and Belgium in July 1794. Finally, during the winter of 1794 to 1795, his army retreated to the border of Hanover. And...with his unsuccessful campaigns over, the Duke returned to England. It was after this military fiasco that the Duke of York came to be (rather unkindly) satirized in song.
    Would you believe, despite all this, King George the Third arranged his son’s promotion to the position of Commander- in-Chief of the army in 17987 And, in the following year, he was appointed to command an army sent to invade Holland. Again he was unsuccessful and this confirmed the general opinion that he was not capable of commanding an army in the field.
    Nevertheless, the rhyme is a bit cruel and harsh because it doesn’t take into account the nature of the soldiers who served with Frederick. All the blame for lack of success should not have been attached to the Duke alone because the army he had under his command was made up from what is commonly described as  "the scum of the earth"—this is a somewhat offensive term used to refer to a group of people regarded as despicable and worthless. Who were they—these ordinary soldiers? Well, they were mostly vicious, brutal ex-envies or raw recruits and elderly men. The officers who commanded them were all untrained as military men. In fact, they were anybody who could afford to buy a commission.
    Urn, but here’s the really great thing that, unfortunately, the Duke of York is not remembered for: he realized that this was a hopeless kind of army and he set about improving conditions in order to recruit higher quality soldiers. He introduced padres—are you familiar with the term? No? Well, let me explain...you see, members of the British Armed Forces are generally Christians of one denomination or another, and a padre is a Christian cleric or chaplain who ministers to the soldiers and attends to their spiritual needs without belonging to any particular grouping within the Christian faith.
    Now, where was I? Yes, Frederick introduced padres, doctors and veterinary surgeons to the battlefield. Why vets? To attend to the horses, of course! Remember we’re talking about late 18th century battlefields. He was also the founder of the Royal Military College for the training of officers at Sand Hurst—yes, the very same one where the princes and other members of the royal family receive their military training today! Frederick also founded the Duke of York’s School in London for sons of soldiers killed in battle. His name is perhaps better commemorated by this school in Chelsea than by the column that stands at the top of Waterloo Steps in St. James’s Park.
    In 1807, the Duke was involved in a scandal with a woman and as a result resigned as Commander-in-Chief but he was reinstated in 1811 by his elder brother, the Prince Regent, who later became George the Fourth of England. He continued in this post until his death in 1827.