All British Cavalry Regiments and Infantry Battalions were established with the post of Schoolmaster Sergeant (or Scholmaster Corporal in the Household Cavalry since they did not, and still do not, have sergeants) on 25 December 1811. This included all Foreign Battalions (KGL, Meuron, Rolls, Chasseur Brittaniques etc) and all "colonial" battalions (ie Canadian Fencible, West India Battalions etc). It also included one such post for each of The Royal Staff Corps, Royal Waggon Train and (when it formed at a later date) The Staff Corps of Cavalry. These were additional posts, not just promotions as in the case of Drum Majors and Colour Sergeants.

There is no record of such a post in the establishments of Board of Ordnance units of Royal Artillery, Royal Horse Artillery, Corps of Artillery Drivers, Royal Military Artificers (later Royal Sappers & Miners).

The role of this post is detailed in a circular letter from the Adjutant General dated and 14 Nov 1811 to Colonels & Commanding Officers (both Regular and Militia, so presumably this also applied to Militia but I have not researched this), plus a General Order dated 1 Jan 1812. These can be seen on pages 331 and 332 of Regulations and Orders for the Army. I have a hard copy of this book but unfortunately the free Google download of it does not have the addenda from 1811 - 1816 which contains these particular documents.

In summary the role of the Schoolmaster Sergeant was to supervise a Regimental (or Battalion) School for "the care and instruction of the children of Non-Commissioned Officers and Soldiers....The object of these Institutions is to implant in the Children's minds early Habits of Morality, Obedience, and Industry, and to give them that portion of Learning, which may qualify them for Non-Commissioned Officers."

The General Order states that "it will rest with the children themselves, when arriving at a proper age to adopt the line of life to which they give preference" so it was not compulsory for them to join the Army. The General Order also states that "Female Children of the Soldiery are also intended to partake of the Benefits of this System of Education".

"The Letters of Private Wheeler" (page 238) state that he became a Schoolmaster Sergeant at Christmas 1823 whilst serving in Corfu. He said "This is a good comfortable situation... I have nothing to do with parades or drill...Colonel Rice allowes me to take as many Greek scholars as I can get (the latter presumably paying). I would guess that it became a sinecure for more senior sergeants who were not going to be promoted to Quartermaster Sergeant, Sergeant Major or even commissioned as Adjutants or QMs.

Although the primary purpose was to teach children of NCOs and Soldiers, I would imagine that Privates who wanted to improve their literacy, and so be eligible for promotion as an NCO might also have availed themselves of such tuition.

Rod