Half-pay (h.p.) was a term used in the
British Army
The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gur ...
and
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by Kingdom of England, English and Kingdom of Scotland, Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were foug ...
of the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries to refer to the pay or allowance an officer received when in retirement or not in actual service.
Past usage
United Kingdom
In the
English Army the option of half-pay developed during the late 17th and early 18th centuries, at the same time as the system of
purchasing commissions and promotions by officers took hold. Serving officers could go on half-pay voluntarily, or be obliged to do so if their services were not required. In both cases, they could be summoned back to their regiments if there was a sudden need for their services. As an example, during the
Jacobite rising of 1715
The Jacobite rising of 1715 ( gd, Bliadhna Sheumais ;
or 'the Fifteen') was the attempt by James Edward Stuart (the Old Pretender) to regain the thrones of England, Ireland and Scotland for the exiled Stuarts.
At Braemar, Aberdeenshire ...
, all listed half-pay officers were recalled to the army.
In the long period of peace that the reduced
British Army
The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gur ...
experienced after the
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...
, the half-pay system became a means by which arduous overseas service could be avoided. Well-to-do officers who were promoted through the purchase system could transfer to the half-pay list if their regiment was posted to India or elsewhere. They could then purchase new appointments to regiments assigned to home service in Britain. Transfers to and from the half-pay list were approved at the discretion of the
Secretary at War.
[
In the 19th century, armies and navies used the half-pay list, which served a similar function to the reserve officer components of modern forces, with officers who were retired or otherwise not required for active service receiving half of the salary of their fully commissioned counter-parts.
The half-pay list could also serve as a means of ridding the service of ineffective or incompetent officers who had too much political influence to be dismissed entirely. Such officers would be placed on half-pay and never recalled to active service. In periods of extended conflict, the half-pay lists became a significant expense for militaries when it was coupled with the selling of half pay-commissions, which was common in the British Army.
]
United States
The half-pay system was implemented in 1778 by the Continental Congress
The Continental Congress was a series of legislative bodies, with some executive function, for thirteen of Britain's colonies in North America, and the newly declared United States just before, during, and after the American Revolutionary War. ...
as an incentive to compensate for the extremely low pay that officers in the Continental Army received, which made it difficult to retain officers for long periods of time. The half-pay benefit was granted to all officers for seven years after the end of the American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of ...
but was later extended to a lifetime benefit. The benefit was promised to all officers serving in the Continental Army, but after the war the Congress of the Articles of Confederation
The Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union was an agreement among the 13 Colonies of the United States of America that served as its first frame of government. It was approved after much debate (between July 1776 and November 1777) by ...
voted against paying for those pensions and so only officers from certain state regiments, which had established an independent half-pay list, received that pay. After extended lobbying by retired officers after the war, Congress in 1783 authorized the full pay of officers for five years to be paid by the Department of War War Department may refer to:
* War Department (United Kingdom)
* United States Department of War (1789–1947)
See also
* War Office, a former department of the British Government
* Ministry of defence
* Ministry of War
* Ministry of Defence
* D ...
. Such a large list of officers drawing half-pay created similar problems for the United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...
as it had in Great Britain
Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...
. In an attempt to control the growing number of aging officers still on the government payroll and to promote a younger officer corps, in 1855, the Secretary of the Navy
The secretary of the Navy (or SECNAV) is a statutory officer () and the head (chief executive officer) of the Department of the Navy, a military department (component organization) within the United States Department of Defense.
By law, the se ...
was given the right, with the recommendation of a review board, to terminate involuntarily officers who were deemed incapable or unfit for duty. Soon, officers with 40 years of service were allowed to retire voluntarily.
In 1889, the half-pay retirement benefit was extended to enlisted personnel who had completed 30 years of active service by General Order No. 372.
France
Following the Second Bourbon Restoration in 1815, the remnants of the ''Grande Armée
''La Grande Armée'' (; ) was the main military component of the French Imperial Army commanded by Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte during the Napoleonic Wars. From 1804 to 1808, it won a series of military victories that allowed the French Empi ...
'' were disbanded; because of wholesale defection to Napoleon upon his return from Elba, the end of the various Coalition Wars since 1792 and the precarious situation of the public finances. Many of the officers were deemed suspect of Bonapartism or Republicanism
Republicanism is a political ideology centered on citizenship in a state organized as a republic. Historically, it emphasises the idea of self-rule and ranges from the rule of a representative minority or oligarchy to popular sovereignty. It ...
and so were thought to be unreliable. Consequently, many of the pre-Waterloo officers were put on ''demi-solde'' ("half-pay"), and some of these were replaced by '' émigrés''.
These officers were removed from active service but still retained their ranks and had to be ready to serve the military at any time. Their perceived political unreliability caused them to continue to be under the burdens of military discipline. They had to ask for permission to marry or to travel outside their '' commune'' (municipality). Also, their mail was opened, and they had to report to police.
The image of the ''demi-solde'' as a nostalgic Bonapartist organising conspiracies for the return of his Emperor is an exaggeration, but some of them were actually involved in anti-Bourbon plots. On the other hand, most of the officers reintegrated into civil life by becoming farmers, industrialists or traders. Others were eventually recalled to the military when it needed to be expanded. Still others emigrated, mainly to the Americas.
From 20,000 in 1815, they numbered only 3000 by the July Revolution
The French Revolution of 1830, also known as the July Revolution (french: révolution de Juillet), Second French Revolution, or ("Three Glorious ays), was a second French Revolution after the first in 1789. It led to the overthrow of King ...
.
Modern usage
In the modern US military, the term "half-pay" refers to the punishment of low-level offences by servicemembers in the form of forfeiture of half of pay and entitlements. There is no specific punishment described as "half-pay" in the Uniform Code of Military Justice, but the term is used as a common shorthand for the forfeiture of pay. The guidelines for the maximum length of time of this punishment are defined by Article 15 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. For commissioned officers, the length of forfeiture cannot exceed two months at half-pay or detention of half months pay for three months. For enlisted personnel, the severity of the available punishments is limited by the rank of the commanding officer and the rank. For example, to punish a noncommissioned officer
A non-commissioned officer (NCO) is a military officer who has not pursued a commission. Non-commissioned officers usually earn their position of authority by promotion through the enlisted ranks. (Non-officers, which includes most or all enli ...
for the same length of time as a junior enlisted service member, the commanding officer must be of a higher rank than would otherwise be required. Officers below the rank of O-4 ( Major or Lieutenant Commander
Lieutenant commander (also hyphenated lieutenant-commander and abbreviated Lt Cdr, LtCdr. or LCDR) is a commissioned officer rank in many navies. The rank is superior to a lieutenant and subordinate to a commander. The corresponding rank i ...
) may impose the confiscation of only up to seven days' pay. Officers of the rank of O-4 and above may impose the forfeiture of half-a-month's pay for two months or the detention of half-a-month's pay for three months.
The term may also be used in reference to the retirement pay that members of the US Armed Forces receive if they retire after 20 years of service. They are technically subject to recall to active service if needed and so the legal term retired pay (reduced pay for reduced service) is used instead of pension. The current retirement system was adopted after World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
to maintain competitiveness with the civilian market, maintain a pool of experienced officers and NCOs, to care for the large numbers of officers and senior enlisted personnel leaving the service after the end of the war.
In fiction
The maritime adventure novels of the Horatio Hornblower
Horatio Hornblower is a fictional officer in the British Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars, the protagonist of a series of novels and stories by C. S. Forester. He later became the subject of films, radio and television programmes, a ...
series, set during the Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...
, include numerous references to the fear of the protagonist and his fellow naval officers of being retired and "stranded ashore on half-pay", which they consider as their worst nightmare because even full pay was often barely sufficient to cover the living expenses of an officer and any dependents. In addition to the permanent retirement of individuals, peacetime cutbacks in the wartime establishments of the army and the navy could mean significant numbers of serving officers being placed on half-pay and awaiting new appointments, which might not occur.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Half-Pay
Napoleonic Wars