What was the QUEENS SHILLING?

Answer 1

It was what they got when they joined the army to go to war ...

Answer 2

When a young man or woman enlist with the British Army, they receive what is called "The Queen's Shilling", a payment of cash, which was a shilling [five pence] when I joined in 1957. I think the money paid is now one pound [£1.00]. It is a way of sealing the contract.

In the 1800's and certainly by 1815, the year of the Battle of Waterloo, a private soldier's pay in the British Army was then one shilling per day.

May not sound much today, but in those days a pint of gin cost a single penny [12 in a shilling] and a pound of tobacco cost 4 pence [2p in modern].

Answer 3

The soldiers official pay was one shilling per day- which was very big money in those times.
When the recruit accepted the first shilling he was officially the soldier and thus duty bound to serve- leaving after "taking the shilling" would be desertion and punishable by death.

What is less known is that all expenses (provision of weapon, clothing, food) was deducted from the soldiers pay- so there was not much of the "shilling per day" left after all the expenses were deducted.

Answer 4

Yes It was a premium paid to soldiers when the joined the army. Allegedly one of the reasons why we have glass bottomed tankards is so that you can see anything in the bottom before you drink the shilling which has been dropped there when you wern't looking by the recruiting officer. If you touched the shilling you were in the army mate.

Answer 5

When I joined the army in 1962 I was given The Queen's Shilling when I signed on, this is to seal the contract between you and the crown,

Answer 6

The Queen's shilling was the practice of paying a shilling to a new recruit in the military. Recruiting officers in the 18th century would get young men drunk and persuade them to take the shilling which bound them to serve in the army.

Answer 7

It was what the ranked soldiers used to be paid in the old times. If you took the kings shilling it meant you were joining the army, and you would be paid a shilling a day.

Answer 8

I believe it's what soldiers used to get when they signed up. A sort of contract. Once they took the Queens shilling they were duty bound to fight.

Answer 9

It was an incentive for men to enlist in the army. Sign up and get a shilling. I think I even got it when I enlisted although, due to inflation, it was about sixty quid.

Answer 10

It's what the common foot soldier got as a tempter for signing up to the armed forces.

Answer 11

a shilling was the old 5d/pence & wages paid to soldiers