Recruitment in the British Army from families with a military tradition. (This contrasted with the Navy, whose officers were more often from a middle-class background.) The second son of King George III, Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany, did much to improve the standard of officer recruitment from his position as Commander in Chief of the Army (from 1795 to 1809, then from 1811 to 1827). The sale of commissions, finally abolished in the Cardwell reforms in 1868–1874, and the further Childers Reforms. In spite of its abolition, the status of an officer being from a privileged background and that of another rank being
United States Army enlisted rank insignia and private first class (Grade E5). Corporal was regraded as Grade E4. Sergeant (Grade E3) was a career soldier rank and its former three-chevron insignia was abolished and replaced with the three chevrons and an arc of the rank of staff sergeant. The rank of staff sergeant was discontinued and the rank of technical sergeant (Grade E2) was renamed sergeant first class. The rank of first sergeant (Grade E1) was absorbed into the senior rank of master sergeant (Grade E1). Also in 1948, the old buff-on-blue insignia were abolished. In their place was a new system of smaller (2 inches