Cashiering

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This article is about the military term. For the occupation, see Cashier.
On January 5, 1895, Captain Alfred Dreyfus being cashiered.

Cashiering (or degradation ceremony) is a ritual dismissal of an individual from some position of responsibility for a breach of discipline.

It is especially associated with the public degradation of disgraced military officers. Prior to World War I this aspect of cashiering sometimes involved a parade-ground ceremony in front of assembled troops with the destruction of symbols of status: epaulettes ripped off shoulders, badges and insignia stripped, swords broken, caps knocked away, and medals torn off and dashed upon the ground.

In addition, in the era when British Army officers generally bought their commissions, being cashiered meant that the amount they had paid was lost, as they could not "sell-out" afterwards.[1]

Famous examples

Famous victims of cashiering include Alfred Dreyfus (see trial and conviction of Alfred Dreyfus and Dreyfus affair), Philippe Pétain, Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald (after the Great Stock Exchange Fraud of 1814), and Francis Mitchell.

In fiction

Cashiering is mentioned in Rudyard Kipling's poem "Danny Deever", in which a British soldier in India is degraded before his regiment before being hanged for murder: "They're taken of his buttons off an' cut his stripes away".

In the cartoon "Fresh Hare", Bugs Bunny is being chased by Elmer Fudd, in this case an officer with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Bugs impersonates a senior officer and cashiers Elmer, not only tearing off his insignia and decorations but also his buttons and the rest of his uniform, even his undershorts.

In the movie Mary Poppins, when George Banks is fired, a version of cashiering occurs: a member of the bank's board of directors ceremoniously tears up the carnation from his lapel, and then destroys his hat and umbrella before showing him the door.

In the TV Series Branded, Jason McCord is shown being cashiered in the opening credits.

In the Honor Harrington novel Field of Dishonor, Pavel Young is cashiered when he is dishonorably discharged from the Royal Manticoran Navy.

A form of cashiering is parodied in the film Looney Tunes: Back in Action, in which after DJ Drake (portrayed by Brendan Fraser) is fired from his job as a security guard, his superior rips off all the badges on his uniform jacket one by one before ordering him to surrender the now-bare jacket, which ironically rendered the earlier moves unnecessary.

In the manga/anime series Fairy Tail, Yukino Aguria is excommunicated from her guild Sabertooth by Guild Master Jiemma, who ordered her to strip herself naked and self-erase her guild mark before ordering her to leave.

In the novel The Crying of Lot 49, the Metzger character acted as a child star in a film called Cashiered, about a World War II British officer drummed out of the army on trumped up charges who tries to clear his name.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Holmes, Richard (2001) [2001]. "Chapter III - Brothers of the Blade". Redcoat: the British soldier in the age of horse and musket (Hardback ed.). London: HarperCollins. p. 159. ISBN 0-00-257097-1. 

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