And indeed, many seized the opportunities opened to them by the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars to serve as such under his command, including: An 1857 report stated the following numbers of non-commissioned officers received commissions in the British Army:[1] Sir William Robertson, 1st Baronet (1860–1933), is the only soldier in the history of the British Army to rise from an enlisted rank to its highest rank, field marshal.
John Horsford (1751–1817) was a British soldier who rose through the ranks to become a major-general in the East India Company's Bengal Army.
Fitzroy Maclean (1911–1996) and Enoch Powell (1912–1998) both enlisted in the British Army as privates and rose to the rank of brigadier during the Second World War.
Sir John Elley (1764–1839) enlisted in the Royal Horse Guards as a private, fought in the Napoleonic Wars and rose to the rank of lieutenant general.
In Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers, the main character Juan "Johnny" Rico enlists in the Mobile Infantry as a private, and later receives a direct appointment to lieutenant.