Geoff:
Interesting topic.
I am nowhere near an expert on the subject but I think this gives us some thought starters
In the British Empire, most if not all Officers came from the upper class all the way through the beginning of the 1939-1945 war.
It is my understanding that most if not all of these officers provided their own batmen maybe at least up until the 1914-1918 war. It was, in any case pretty well entrenched whether paid for by the individual Officer or by the services.
In the US, it was a little more "democratic: so to say but not much more. Up until at least the American Civil War, one could buy an Officer's Commission and presumably those officers could afford a "personal attendant".
I cannot speak to the situation in the British Empire, but in the US Forces, officers of Flag Rank, ie Generals or Admirals, had two categories of "batmen". When my father reached that level, he was allocated two "Stewards" who took care of his quarters and looked after the family. He was also assigned a personal "aide", usually a Captain, who took care of the daily military housekeeping details. Appointments, transportation etc. A glorified personal secretary if you will.
In the Marine Corps, at least, if you were a Base Commander you also had access to a pool of enlisted men to handle such things as receptions, official parties etc.
I will have to check with my father on the details, but as best I remember all of that came to a screeching halt sometime in the mid/late 1960's when a US Congressman who's name escapes me for the moment (I want to say Les Aspin) succeeded in getting
legislation passed eliminating these perks for Flag Rank officers.
In a large number of circumstances, Flag Rank officers could still draw on the pool of enlisted men mentioned earlier to help out with parties etc. but unless it was an "Official" affair they had to pay out of pocket for that service.
As a side note, at that same time, Officers were no longer provided with a car and driver (that extended down to the rank of Col. in the Marine Corps) and no longer had their lawns mowed by prisoners.
Having said all of this, it may be of interest to you to know that the Stewards that my father had during his 10 year tenure as a Flag Rank Officer and the aide that he had during a good part of that same length of time are still today steadfast friends. In fact his former aide, who retired as a Col. is one of Pat's and my best friends and lives not more than 15 minutes away from my fathers home and is a regular email pen pal keeping me abreast of my fathers condition. Which, sadly is not too good right now.
I realize, Geoff, that a Batman in the English sense and a steward in the American sense are not quite the same thing but I think there is a pretty good link.
As to the situation in the British Empire, better make that Commonwealth, and the US, it was probably a blending of a matter of economics and perhaps even social changes that spelled the end of the custom.
In the US, virtually all stewards were either African Americans (Army, Marine Corps, Air Force) or Filipinos (Navy, Coast Guard).
As I said, interesting topic
Cheers
Bill
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