King's shilling

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The King's shilling - for many years a soldier's daily pay, before stoppages - was the shilling given to recruits of the British army and the Royal Navy of the 18th and 19th centuries. The expression "to take the King's shilling" meant that a man agreed to serve as a soldier or sailor.

Recruiters of the time used all sorts of tricks, most involving strong drink, to press the shilling on unsuspecting victims. The man did not formally become a soldier until attested before a Justice of the Peace, and could still escape his fate by paying his recruiter "smart money" before attestation. In the 1840's this amounted to £1 (twenty shillings), a sum most recruits were unlikely to have at hand.

[edit] See also

• Recruitment in the British Army
• Impressment

[edit] References

• Holmes, Richard (2001). The Oxford Companion to Military History. Oxford University Press.