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The British Army's Officer Purchase System 1664-1871

Chris Green is The History Chap; telling stories that brings the past to life.

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For over two centuries, from 1660 to 1871, the British Army allowed officers to buy their commissions and promotions. Wealthy aristocrats like Lord Cardigan could purchase their way to command without ever seeing battle, leading to disasters like the Charge of the Light Brigade. It's easy to dismiss the purchase system as simply elitist and corrupt—a recipe for incompetence that blocked talent and rewarded privilege.

But the real story is far more nuanced.

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The Battle of Assaye 1803

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Chris Green is The History Chap; telling stories that brings the past to life.

The British victory over Tipu Sultan, the "Tiger of Mysore", during the 4th Anglo-Mysore War, at the battle of Seringapatam 1799.

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Chris Green is The History Chap; telling stories that brings the past to life.

On 26 January 1808, four hundred soldiers of the New South Wales Corps marched on Government House in Sydney and arrested Governor William Bligh. This was the Rum Rebellion - the only successful military coup in Australian history.

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Chris Green is The History Chap; telling stories that brings the past to life.

The Mutiny on the Bounty is one of history's most famous naval rebellions, but what most people know comes from Hollywood, not history. The films of 1935, 1962, and 1984 portrayed William Bligh as a tyrannical monster and Fletcher Christian as a heroic champion of the oppressed. But the real story is far more nuanced—and far more interesting.

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Chris Green is The History Chap; telling stories that brings the past to life.

EDGEHILL: THE MOST HAUNTED BATTLEFIELD IN BRITAIN?

In December 1642, just weeks after the Battle of Edgehill, terrified villagers in Warwickshire reported seeing an entire battle being fought in the sky above their heads. Night after night, phantom armies clashed in the darkness—ghostly cavalry charges, spectral infantry formations, and the terrible sounds of dying men echoing across the frozen fields.

This is the only battlefield haunting in British history that was investigated by a Royal Commission sent by King Charles I himself. The investigation was documented in a contemporary pamphlet that survives to this day in the British Library.

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Chris Green is The History Chap; telling stories that brings the past to life.

What happened to the survivors of the Charge of the Light Brigade in 1854, during the Crimean War?

The answer is a tale of two fates. 

While some survivors found success and prosperity, others ended their days in workhouses and paupers' graves—a shocking reality that would eventually spark national outrage.

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Chris Green is The History Chap; telling stories that brings the past to life.

This is the story of the audacious theft of England's Crown Jewels from the Tower of London, by Thomas Blood, in 1671.

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Chris Green is The History Chap; telling stories that brings the past to life.

Did you know that one in eight of the defenders at the battle of the Alamo (Texas 1836) were actually born in the British Isles?

This is their incredible and little-known story...

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Chris Green is The History Chap; telling stories that brings the past to life.

The Battle of Bossenden Wood, Kent 1838, when British redcoats took on farm workers led by a self-proclaimed Messiah.

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Chris Green is The History Chap; telling stories that brings the past to life.

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On the 3rd August 1889, British general, Francis Grenfell, defeated a Mahdist invasion of Egypt at the battle of Toski.

This is the story of that battle and of the general after whom Grenfell Tower in London was named.

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