Meritocracy and the Military: Lessons from the Royal Air Force

This essay challenges the casual use of the term ‘meritocracy’ by senior military officers and the implications of using that rhetoric, which imparts a simplicity to the concept. Sophy Antrobus analyses the RAF, given its historic promotion of itself as a service which attempted to–and did–improve the social mobility of boys from modest backgrounds to the highest levels of the RAF through its apprentice scheme established in the 1920s. She argues that the term should be approached with caution by senior military leaders and perhaps replaced with simpler, less controversial language. Perhaps the pursuit of a fair and equitable system might be a better stated aim than an assumption that it already exists.