I should have added that the shrinking size of the British Army in recent years means that FM is no longer a "given" for officers reaching a certain level of command, and the last promotion to FM of a serving officer was in 1994. A defence review the following year recommended removing five-star ranks from all three services due to their size. There have been a few more appointments to FM since then, principally in 2012, but these have all been honorary. Even back in the 18th and 19th centuries, there were long periods when no appointments were made, outside of the Royal Family, and all previous holder of the rank had died of old age.