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
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