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
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chief marshals and marshals and admirals of the fleet were in service equivalent to the "army general", in rank they superseded them until 1974 when the rank "army general" was formally equated with the chief marshals of a troop arm and marshals of a troop arm.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