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
Recruitment in the British Army Hussars (Queen Mary's Own), and Sultan Qaboos bin Said al Said of Oman served with the Cameronians (Scottish Rifles). At the start of 1914, the British Army had a reported strength of 710,000 men including reserves, of which 247,432 were regular troops, also including 80,000 regular troops formed as the British Expeditionary Force. The recruitment drive would be spearheaded by Lord Kitchener once war had been declared in August 1914. It was abundantly clear that the army that the Kaiser had referred to as a "contemptible little army" would need thousands more recruits. Young Britons answered the call, for King