Royal Army College

Lesson Overview

The salute is the most familiar act in military life and one of the most misunderstood. To an outsider it can look like deference, one person bowing to another. It is nothing of the kind. The salute and the other compliments are marks of mutual respect within the profession of arms, and respect rendered to the Sovereign, to the Sovereign's commission, and to the Colours: given with pride and returned by the senior.

This lesson teaches the knowledge of compliments: what each one honours, the words of command that govern it, the sequence counted out by numbers, and when it is paid and when it is not. The physical movement, the carriage of the arm and the cut of the hand, is built and certified on the square under a drill instructor. The lesson ties throughout to two of the Army's Core Values, Respect for Others and Discipline, because the compliment is where those values are made visible in a single daily act.

By the end you will be able to explain what the salute means, say whom and when compliments are paid and on what occasions they are not, name how compliments are paid when unarmed and when armed, describe the hand salute to the front by numbers and the words of command that govern it, salute to the right and the left and at the halt and on the march, describe the compliments rendered at morning and evening colours, and explain why a compliment is a mark of discipline.

Key Terms

Compliment: a formal mark of respect rendered to the Sovereign, to the Sovereign's commission, or to the Colours, the salute being its commonest form.
The commission: the Sovereign's warrant of authority held by an officer; it is the commission, not the person, that a soldier salutes.
Hand salute: the compliment paid by the hand when a soldier is not under arms, that is, not carrying a weapon, given only when headdress is worn.
By numbers: the method of teaching a movement in separate counted stages, each made on its own count, before the parts are run together into one continuous action.
Word of command: the spoken order that sets a drill movement going, in two parts: the cautionary that warns and names, and the executive, the sharp word on which the movement is made.
To the front, to the right, to the left: the three directions of the hand salute. The salute to the front is made with the head still; the salute to a flank is made by turning the head and eyes toward the person honoured.
Eyes right (or left): the compliment of a formed body on the march, the ranks turning the head and eyes toward the person or Colour honoured while the body keeps marching.
Headdress: the cap, beret, or other head-cover; the hand salute is paid only when it is worn. A soldier uncovered pays respect by other means.
Present arms: the formal compliment paid by a body under arms, made with the weapon; the butt salute is its lesser form when armed but not at the present.
Colours and flags: the Colours are the consecrated ceremonial flags of a unit and are saluted; the National Flag and the Army Ensign are flags, not consecrated, and are honoured at colours but never dipped.

What the salute means

A salute is a greeting and a mark of mutual respect between members of the profession of arms. When two soldiers exchange a salute, they acknowledge one another as members of a common calling that holds the right to bear arms on behalf of the State and accepts, in the Army's own words, the unlimited liability of that service. It is given by the junior and returned by the senior, and the return is as much a part of the courtesy as the giving. It is an exchange, not a submission, rendered smartly and with pride, because a soldier saluting does not lower themselves but honours the thing the salute is paid to.

What the salute honours is not the private person. It is rendered to the Sovereign, as head of the State and Supreme Commander; to the Sovereign's commission, the warrant of lawful authority an officer holds; and to the Colours, the consecrated flags that embody the unit and its honour. When a soldier salutes an officer, they salute the commission that officer carries, the lawful authority of the Crown vested in them, not the individual and not whether they happen to admire them. The Manual states it plainly: the compliment is paid to the rank and the commission, not to personal preference. So a soldier salutes correctly whether the officer before them is one they respect deeply or one they scarcely know.

This is also why there is an obligation on both sides. Because the salute is owed to the commission and not begged of the man, a junior is bound to render it and a senior bound to return it. The officer who fails to acknowledge a salute fails in their own courtesy as surely as the soldier who withholds one, and there is no loss of dignity for either in the exchange. The same understanding, that authority is a thing held under the Crown and served rather than a personal possession, is taught at length in the Foundations of Military Leadership course; the compliment is its daily, outward sign.

Whom and when compliments are paid

A soldier must know, as a matter of ordinary routine, the occasions on which a compliment is due, so that the right response is automatic. One principle organises the whole list: compliments are paid to the office, not to the person. Hold that, and the particular cases fall into place.

The highest compliment the Army renders is paid to the Sovereign and to the members of the reigning house, owed to The Prince as head of the State whom the Army's oath binds it to serve, and to the royal personages of the Prince's house. This is the apex of every scale of compliments, and the form it takes on parade, the present arms or royal salute, is the fullest the Army has.

Compliments are paid to the Colours, the consecrated flags of a unit, which are saluted because they embody the unit, its service, and its honour. They hold their own place in the order of compliments, second only to the Sovereign whose Colour heads the stand. How a soldier and a body salute the Colours, and the rule that a Colour itself dips only to the Sovereign and to no other, are the subject of Lesson 06; carry from here that the Colours are among the things to which a compliment is owed.

Compliments are paid to officers, who hold the Sovereign's commission: on meeting them out of doors, when reporting to or being dismissed by them, when addressing or being addressed, and on the other occasions regulation lays down, in each case saluting the commission and not the person. The junior salutes first and holds the salute until it is returned. By the same principle the compliment is paid to the foreign equivalent: an officer of an allied or friendly service, holding their own nation's commission, is paid the same compliment as one of the Army's own, because the courtesy is rendered to the office of a commissioned officer and not to the flag they serve under.

There are also occasions on which compliments are not paid, and knowing when not to salute is as much a part of good order as knowing when to. The hand salute is not given when the soldier is uncovered, treated in full below; not ordinarily indoors unless under arms or on a formal occasion such as reporting in an office; and not when it would be unsafe or impractical, when driving, when carrying a load in both hands, or when the hands are otherwise fully occupied, in which case respect is paid by other means: by coming to attention, turning the head, or saluting by word. Nor is the working drill of a duty interrupted for it: a soldier already at attention in the ranks, or a sentry at certain posts, renders compliments as the drill for that duty prescribes. The detail is confirmed on the square and by standing orders; where genuine doubt arises the soldier follows the example of seniors or, better, salutes, since a compliment paid where none was strictly due is a small fault and one withheld is not.

   WHO OR WHAT             COMPLIMENT OWED               BY WHOM
   --------------------    --------------------------    -----------------
   The Prince and the      The highest compliment;       All ranks
   reigning house          the royal salute / present
                           arms by a body under arms

   The Colours             Saluted as the embodiment     All ranks
                           of the unit (Lesson 06)

   A commissioned          Hand salute unarmed;          Juniors to the
   officer                 the appropriate armed         officer; the
                           compliment under arms         officer returns it

   A foreign officer       The same as for one of the    As above
   (allied / friendly)     Army's own officers

   The National Flag       Halt and salute (unarmed);    All present;
   at colours              present arms (armed)          senior on behalf
                                                         of an unarmed party

   NOT SALUTED BY HAND     Pay respect by other means:   When uncovered,
   when uncovered, hands   come to attention, turn the   driving, hands
   full, driving, or       head, or salute by word       full, or where
   where unsafe                                          unsafe / indoors

Figure 1. A guide to whom and what is saluted, the compliment owed, and the occasions on which the hand salute is not given. The organising rule throughout is that the compliment is paid to the office, the Crown, the commission, the Colour, the State, not to the individual.

How compliments are paid

A compliment is paid in one of a few forms, and which form depends chiefly on whether the soldier is under arms, that is, carrying a weapon.

When a soldier is not under arms, the compliment is the hand salute. The Manual records the old guide to its rhythm, "the longest way up, the shortest way down": the hand rises by the longest, most dignified path and is cut away by the shortest, crispest one. It is the compliment a soldier pays most often and the one most seen by the public; the sections below teach it by numbers, to the front and to a flank, at the halt and on the march.

When a soldier or a body is under arms, the compliment is paid with the weapon rather than the hand. The fullest form is the present arms, the formal salute made with the weapon brought to the position of the present, used as the compliment of a body under arms on parade, at colours, and to the Sovereign and the Colours. A lesser armed compliment, the butt salute, is paid with the weapon when armed but not formally at the present. On the march a formed body pays its compliment by "Eyes right" or "Eyes left". Each is an exact movement built and certified on the square; here it is enough to know that the hand salutes unarmed, the present arms and butt salute are the armed compliments, and the marching body salutes by eyes right or left.

The hand salute to the front, by numbers

The hand salute looks simple and is not, which is exactly why it is taught by numbers, the same method Lesson 02 set out for every basic movement: the action is broken into separate counted stages, each made and corrected on its own count, before the whole is run together as one. Taught this way the salute is built correctly into the body, so that when the count is taken away it stays correct under the eyes of the public. What follows is the sequence and the standard; the exact line of the arm and the snap of the hand are corrected on the square.

The salute to the front is made from the position of attention and returns to it. It is commonly taught in two movements, "up" on the first count and "down" on the second, with a pause between in which the position is held.

On the first count, "up", the right hand is brought smartly by the longest way to the head. The upper arm is forced up level, parallel to the ground, and the forearm and hand make a straight line slanting down to the head. The hand is fully open, the fingers and thumb straight and together, the palm to the front and turned very slightly inward. The forefinger touches the head just above and to the right of the right eye, at the line of the eyebrow, or touches the lower edge or peak of the headdress where one is worn. The wrist and hand are kept straight, in one line with the forearm, not bent or cupped. The whole is made vigorously, so that the hand arrives, in the old phrase, quivering and clear: the arm taut, the hand steady, nothing loose.

In the pause the position is held still, the eyes to the front, the body at attention, the arm and hand exactly placed. When saluting an individual at the halt, the soldier holds the salute until it is acknowledged and returned, then cuts it away.

On the second count, "down", the hand is cut smartly by the shortest way straight down to the side, the arm driven to the seam of the trouser and the hand closing into the position of attention as it arrives. There is no sweeping or curving; the shortest way is a straight, crisp cut. The longest way up gives the salute its dignity and the shortest way down its snap, and the contrast between the two is the rhythm of a good salute.

   THE HAND SALUTE TO THE FRONT, BY NUMBERS

   Position of           "UP" (count one)        "DOWN" (count two)
   attention             hold the salute         back to attention

       O                      O   __                   O
      /|\                    /|\ /  (hand by           /|\
       |     -- up -->        |\/   the longest         |     -- down -->
      / \         the         |     way; held;         / \      the
                  longest          forefinger                   shortest
                  way up           above & right                way down
                                   of the right eye,
                                   palm slightly
                                   turned, upper arm
                                   level, fingers and
                                   thumb straight
                                   and together

   Words of command (when taught by numbers, to a squad):
     Cautionary: "To the front"        Executive (up):   "salute"
                                        and "down" given on the next count
   Run together, the movement is one continuous up-hold-cut.

Figure 2. The hand salute to the front taught in two counts. On "up" the hand travels by the longest way to a point above and to the right of the right eye, upper arm level, fingers and thumb straight and together, palm turned slightly; the salute is held; on "down" the hand is cut by the shortest way to the side. The figure shows the stages only; the exact carriage is built and certified on the square.

On meeting an officer in the ordinary way, the soldier makes this same movement as one smooth action: up by the longest way, held while the salute is acknowledged, cut by the shortest. The numbers are the scaffolding; the smooth salute is what the soldier renders in the street.

Saluting to a flank, at the halt, and on the march

The salute to the front is made with the head and eyes kept to the front, but a soldier often passes the person to be saluted to one side, and then it is made to the right or to the left, so the compliment is plainly directed at the person and not at the empty air ahead. As the hand comes up, the head and eyes turn smartly toward the person, so the soldier looks the officer in the face while the hand is at the salute. The salute is held with the head turned, the two looking at one another for the moment of the compliment; then, as the hand is cut on the down, the head and eyes turn smartly back to the front. The hand movement is the same; what is added is the turn of the head and eyes and their return as the salute is cut. A salute given with the eyes fixed ahead, as though the officer were not there, misses the point.

The salute is given both at the halt and on the move, and the timing differs. At the halt, a soldier faces or turns toward the officer, comes to attention if not already at it, and salutes, holding it until it is acknowledged and returned before cutting it away: attention, salute, held, cut. A soldier seated or at rest rises and comes to attention first where the occasion calls for it. On the march, an individual soldier does not halt to salute an officer they pass. They keep marching, in step, and pay the compliment by turning the head and eyes toward the officer, saluting with the hand if a free hand allows. The timing is the thing to get right: the salute is begun a set number of paces before reaching the officer, held as the soldier passes abreast, and cut away a like number of paces beyond. Begun too late or cut too early, the compliment is given to the officer's back; begun and ended at the right moment, it is plainly directed at the officer as the soldier passes. The exact number of paces, and the carriage of arm and head on the move, are set in drill and built on the square.

Eyes right and eyes left: the compliment of a body on the march

When a whole body marches past a person or a Colour to be honoured, the compliment is not a hundred separate hand salutes but a single collective movement, the marching salute, given on the command "Eyes right" or "Eyes left". This is the form most often seen by the public, in the march past at a parade, and it is the clearest example of the whole course's theme: the discipline of unity carried into the act of respect.

The cautionary is given as the body approaches the saluting base. On the executive word the ranks, except those on the directing flank who must keep the dressing, turn the head and eyes smartly toward the person or Colour and hold them there, looking at the office honoured, while the body marches on and the arms swing or are held as ordered. The senior, the Colour party, and any soldier whose hands are free salute as their drill prescribes. The heads stay turned until the body has passed the dais and "Eyes front" brings them smartly back together. Lesson 03 introduced this marching salute and Lesson 05 sets it in the full march past; hold from here that a body on the march salutes by eyes right or left, and that the smartness of a hundred heads turning as one is itself the compliment.

The headdress rule: the hand salute and being uncovered

One firm rule governs the hand salute above all others, and a soldier must know it without hesitation: a salute with the hand is paid only when headdress is worn. A soldier who is covered, wearing a cap, beret, or other head-cover, salutes with the hand as taught above. A soldier who is uncovered, bareheaded, does not salute with the hand.

The reason is partly practical and partly a matter of form. The hand salute descends from the raising or touching of the headdress and is properly made to it; with no headdress there is, in the older sense, nothing to which the hand is brought, and a hand raised to a bare head is not the compliment. But being uncovered does not cancel the respect; it only changes the means. A soldier who is uncovered pays the compliment by coming smartly to attention and turning the head toward the person honoured, or by the appropriate salutation in word. So, uncovered indoors, a soldier reporting to an officer comes to attention rather than saluting with the hand; at a religious service, where headdress is removed, the compliments owed are paid by attention and bearing. Covered, the hand salutes; uncovered, the body comes to attention and the respect is paid in full, without the hand. The two faults the rule guards against are saluting with the hand while bareheaded and imagining that being uncovered excuses the compliment altogether.

Compliments off parade, in plain clothes, in a vehicle, and indoors

Most of a soldier's compliments are paid not on the square but in the ordinary course of the day, and the same principles carry into those moments, adjusted to the circumstances.

Off parade and out of doors in uniform, the soldier pays the hand salute to an officer on meeting them, as taught, when covered; the courtesy of the profession does not lapse because the soldier is not on a parade.

In plain clothes, a soldier out of uniform does not give the military hand salute, having no headdress of the kind and not being in the dress of the service. The respect owed an officer is still real and is paid in the civil manner appropriate to the occasion.

In a vehicle, a soldier driving does not salute, because both hands and the attention belong to the safe control of the vehicle; a salute that endangered the driving would be no compliment at all. A passenger who is free may pay it as circumstances allow.

Indoors, the hand salute is ordinarily not given unless the soldier is under arms or the occasion is a formal one such as reporting in an office; the everyday courtesies are paid by attention, by standing when an officer enters where that is the custom, and by the ordinary marks of respect rather than by a hand salute in a corridor.

Across all of these the thread is one. The compliment is owed to the office and the Crown, and it is always paid; what changes with the dress, the place, and the circumstances is only the form by which it is paid.

Compliments to the National Flag at colours

Each day the National Flag is hoisted in the morning and lowered in the evening, and these moments, morning colours and evening colours, are marked with a compliment, because the flag stands for the Principality the Army serves. A party or an individual that is not under arms halts, faces the flag, and comes to attention, and the senior present salutes on its behalf while the rest stand at attention, so the compliment is rendered through the senior by the body as a whole. A party that is under arms pays the compliment by coming to the present arms. In both cases the soldiers honour the flag as it goes up or comes down, holding the compliment while it travels, and resume on the order.

Hold clearly the distinction the course keeps throughout: the National Flag and the Army Ensign are flags, honoured at colours in this way, but they are not consecrated and are never dipped; the Colours of a unit are consecrated and are dipped only to the Sovereign, as Lesson 06 sets out in full. The compliment at colours is real respect, paid daily, to the symbol of the State.

Why a compliment is a mark of discipline

A compliment is small and takes a moment, which is exactly why it reveals so much. A smart, willing compliment, rendered with pride and to the standard, is the mark of a disciplined and self-respecting soldier; a grudging, sloppy, or half-given one is a small but real failure of discipline. The Manual makes the point that turnout and bearing in the smallest things reveal whether a soldier can be relied on in the larger ones: a soldier who cannot be bothered to salute properly has begun, in a small way, to set their own preference above the standard.

The smartness is not vanity. A salute given quivering and clear, the hand cut crisply away, is a small public statement that the soldier holds themselves to a standard when no one is forcing them to, and a salute given limp, late, or half-raised says the opposite as plainly. Because the compliment is the act of military life the public sees most often, the standard of a salute in the street is, in miniature, the standard of the Army itself, which is why so small a movement is taught so exactly.

This is where two of the Army's Core Values meet in a single act. Respect for Others is, in the Army's own words, more than a legal obligation; it is a creed, the treating of others fairly and according to their due. The compliment is that creed made visible and habitual: respect rendered, daily and exactly, to the Sovereign, to lawful authority, and to the Colours, and returned by the senior to the junior, so that respect runs in both directions and not merely upward. Discipline is the subordination of personal considerations to the collective interest, and the compliment is a small, clear instance of it: the soldier renders the courtesy that is due regardless of their private feelings about the individual, because they are paying respect to the commission and the Crown and not to the person. To salute well is a soldier saying, in one disciplined movement, that they respect their profession, honour their Sovereign, and hold themselves to the standard. As ever, the meaning and the method are learned here; the movement is made correct, and certified, on the square.

In Practice: The Compliment That Was Not Owed to the Person

A young soldier of the Royal Kaharagian Army, newly posted, confides to a comrade that there is an officer they would rather not salute, because they have heard things about the man and do not personally respect him. The comrade, who has been in a little longer, puts it straight. The salute, they say, was never owed to the man. It is owed to the commission he carries, the Sovereign's warrant of authority, and to render it smartly is to honour the Crown and the lawful order the soldier swore to serve, not to pass a private judgement on the officer's character. To withhold it, or to give it grudgingly, would not punish the officer; it would only be the soldier failing in their own discipline and their own respect for the commission.

The comrade then walks the young soldier through it as a drill. Covered, you salute with the hand: up by the longest way, the hand quivering and clear above and to the right of the right eye, the upper arm level, held while he returns it, then cut away by the shortest way to the side. Passing him on your right, you turn the head and eyes to him as the hand goes up, look him in the face for the moment of the salute, and turn back as you cut it away, timing it so it is begun before you are abreast and ended after, given to him and not to his back. Uncovered, you do not raise the hand at all; you come smartly to attention and turn the head, and the respect is paid just the same. The young soldier sees both the principle and the method, and the next time the occasion arises they pay the compliment exactly and with pride, understanding that they have lost nothing and lowered themselves in nothing, but have shown, in a moment, the kind of soldier they mean to be.

Check Your Understanding

The lesson insists the salute is "never servility". What does the salute actually mean, and to what three things is it rendered? Why does it follow that a soldier's personal opinion of an officer is beside the point, and why is the senior bound to return the salute?
Describe the hand salute to the front by numbers: what happens on the "up", in the pause, and on the "down", and where exactly is the hand placed? How does the salute change when made to the right or the left, and what is the firm rule about saluting when uncovered?
Describe the compliment rendered to the National Flag at morning and evening colours by an unarmed party and by an armed party, and explain how a body on the march pays a compliment by "Eyes right" or "Eyes left". Why does the course stress that the National Flag is honoured but never dipped, while the Colours are?

Reflection (write a short paragraph): This lesson ties the compliment to two of the Army's values, Respect for Others and Discipline, and argues that a grudging or sloppy salute is a small failure of discipline, while a smart one is the standard of the Army shown in miniature to the public. Think about why an act as small as a salute should be treated as revealing something about a soldier's reliability. How does rendering a courtesy you may not personally feel, because it is owed to the commission and the Crown rather than to the person, connect to the wider discipline a soldier is expected to keep, and why does the method, the exact way the salute is made, matter as much as the willingness to make it?

Summary

A salute is a greeting and a mark of mutual respect between members of the profession of arms, rendered with pride and never as servility, given by the junior and returned by the senior, the return being as much a part of the courtesy as the giving.
A compliment is rendered to the Sovereign as head of the State, to the Sovereign's commission held by an officer (the commission, not the person), and to the Colours; the same compliment is paid to a foreign officer holding their own commission, because it is paid to the office and not the person.
Compliments are paid to The Prince and the reigning house (the highest), to the Colours, to officers (on meeting out of doors, on reporting, and as regulated), and to foreign officers holding their own commission; they are not paid with the hand when uncovered, when the hands are occupied, when driving, where unsafe, or ordinarily indoors unless under arms, the respect then being paid by attention and other means.
When not under arms and covered the compliment is the hand salute, taught by numbers: up by the longest way to a point above and right of the right eye, upper arm level, fingers and thumb straight and together, palm turned slightly, held, then cut by the shortest way to the side; to a flank the head and eyes turn toward the person and return as the salute is cut.
The salute is timed to the passing on the march, begun before reaching the officer and cut after; a marching body pays its compliment by "Eyes right" or "Eyes left", the ranks turning the head and eyes together; under arms the compliment is the present arms, or the butt salute when armed but not at the present.
The firm rule is that the hand salute is paid only when headdress is worn; uncovered, the soldier comes to attention and pays respect by other means, the respect rendered in full but without the hand.
The National Flag is honoured at morning and evening colours, unarmed parties halting and the senior saluting, armed parties presenting arms; the flag is honoured but never dipped, while the consecrated Colours are dipped only to the Sovereign (Lesson 06).
A smart compliment is a mark of a disciplined, proud soldier and a grudging one a small failure of discipline, joining Respect for Others and Discipline in a single daily act and showing the public the Army's standard in miniature; the meaning and the method are learned here, the physical execution certified on the square under a drill instructor.

Compliments and Marks of Respect