Army Council (1904) practice, however, a huge amount of influence was retained by the exceedingly conservative C-in-C Field Marshal Prince George, 2nd Duke of Cambridge, who held the post between 1856–1895. His resistance to reform caused military efficiency to lag well behind Britain's rivals, a problem which became painfully obvious during the Second Boer War. The situation was only remedied in 1904 when the post of Commander-in-Chief was abolished and replaced with that of the Chief of the General Staff. An Army Council was created along similar lines to the Board of Admiralty, chaired by the Secretary of State for War, and an
Army General (Soviet rank) of "army general" and it is still frequently used. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union the ranks of marshal of the branch and chief marshal of the branch were abolished, and the most senior officers of these branches now hold the rank of "army general". Although chief marshals and marshals and admirals of the fleet were in service equivalent to the "army general", in rank they superseded them until 1974 when the rank "army general" was formally equated with the chief marshals of a troop arm and marshals of a troop arm. It was at this time that their