Royal Army College

Lesson Overview

The salute is the most familiar act in military life and one of the most misunderstood. From outside it can look like one person bowing to another. It is nothing of the kind. The salute is the time-honoured greeting and the everyday mark of mutual respect between those who serve, and the other compliments belong with it. Lesson 03 set out the customs and courtesies of the service in general. This lesson takes the most visible of them and looks at it closely, so a new entrant understands the act the public sees most often, and understands it from the inside.

A salute has two layers: its meaning and the courtesy around it, and its physical execution. This knowledge course teaches the first. The salute by numbers, the timing on the march, and the turn of the head for eyes right or left are taught and certified in person on the square in the Drill and Ceremonial course (RMT 130), under a drill instructor who can correct the carriage of your arm. Here you learn what the compliment means and when it is owed; there you learn to make it with your body.

By the end you will be able to explain what the salute means and why there is no servility in it, say whom and what is saluted and why the compliment is paid to the office and not the person, describe the occasions on which compliments are paid, state the rule that the hand salute is given only when headdress is worn and what a soldier does instead when uncovered, explain how compliments are paid off parade, in plain clothes, and in a vehicle, and say why a compliment is promptly and smartly returned.

Key Terms

Compliment: a formal mark of respect rendered to the Crown, to the Crown's commission held by an officer, or to the Colour; the salute is its commonest form.
The salute: the time-honoured greeting and mark of mutual respect between those who serve, paid to what the person honoured represents and not to the person.
The Crown's commission: the Sovereign's warrant of lawful authority that an officer holds; it is the commission, not the individual, that a soldier salutes.
Hand salute: the compliment paid by the hand when a soldier is not carrying a weapon, given only when headdress is worn.
Covered and uncovered: wearing headdress (covered) or bareheaded (uncovered); the hand salute is paid only when covered.
Headdress: the cap, beret, or other head-cover worn as part of the dress of the service.
The Colour: the consecrated ceremonial flag of a unit, saluted because it embodies the unit and its honour.
The foreign equivalent: an officer of an allied or friendly service who holds their own nation's commission, paid the same compliment as an officer of the Army's own.
Returning the compliment: the senior's acknowledgement of a salute, as much a part of the courtesy as the giving of it.

What the salute means

A salute is a greeting. When two people who serve exchange one, they greet each other as members of a common calling that accepts the duty to defend the Principality and its people. It is rendered with pride, never grudgingly, because a soldier who salutes is not making themselves small. They are honouring the thing the salute is paid to, and there is no servility in honouring something worth honouring.

What the salute honours is not the private person in front of you. This single idea makes sense of everything else in the lesson. The salute is paid to the Crown's commission: the warrant of lawful authority an officer holds on behalf of The Prince, the Sovereign the Army's oath binds it to serve. When you salute an officer you salute that authority, not the individual, and not whether you know, like, or admire them. The same act honours the Crown itself in the person of the Sovereign and the reigning house, and it honours the Colour, the consecrated flag that embodies a unit and its honour. In every case the compliment is paid to what the person or flag represents.

Once you see that, the appearance of servility falls away. Servility is one person abasing themselves before another; the salute is the opposite. It is a free act of respect rendered to the lawful order a soldier has chosen to serve. And because it is owed to the commission and not begged of the man, it binds both sides: the junior is bound to render it, the senior to return it. An officer who ignores a salute fails in courtesy as surely as a soldier who withholds one. There is no winner and no loser, only two people who serve, each acknowledging what the other represents. This idea, that authority is held under the Crown and served rather than owned, runs through the whole of a soldier's service; it is set out in full in the Introduction to the Royal Kaharagian Army course (RMT 110) and deepened in Foundations of Military Leadership (LDR 201).

Whom and what is saluted

A soldier must know who and what is owed a compliment as a matter of routine, so the response is automatic. One principle organises the whole list: the compliment is paid to the office, not the person. Hold that, and every case falls into place.

The highest compliment is paid to the Sovereign and the members of the reigning house: to The Prince as head of the State and to the royal personages of the Prince's house. This is the apex of every scale, because the Crown is the source of the authority an officer's commission carries.

A compliment is paid to the Colour because it embodies a unit, its service, and its honour. It is saluted as a thing, but what it stands for is a body of people and their record of service. How a body salutes the Colour on parade, and the rule that a Colour is lowered only to the Sovereign, belong to the Drill and Ceremonial course.

A compliment is paid to commissioned officers, who hold the Crown's commission, on meeting them, on being addressed by them, and on the other ordinary occasions of service. The junior renders it first; the officer returns it. By the same principle it is paid to the foreign equivalent: an officer of an allied or friendly service holds their own nation's commission and is paid the same compliment as one of the Army's own. This follows directly from the rule. The courtesy is rendered to the office of a commissioned officer, the holding of lawful military authority, not to the flag that officer serves under.

   WHO OR WHAT             WHAT THE COMPLIMENT HONOURS
   --------------------    --------------------------------------------
   The Prince and the      The Crown itself, the source of all lawful
   reigning house          authority. The highest compliment of all.

   The Colour              The unit it embodies, its service and honour.

   A commissioned          The Crown's commission the officer holds.
   officer                 Not the individual.

   A foreign officer       The office of a commissioned officer, the
   (allied or friendly)    holding of lawful military authority.

   THE ORGANISING RULE:    THE COMPLIMENT IS PAID TO THE OFFICE,
                           NOT TO THE PERSON.

Figure 1. Whom and what a compliment is owed to, and what each honours. In every case it is paid to what the person or flag represents, the Crown, the commission, the unit, never the individual. Hold the rule at the foot of the table and the rest follows.

When a compliment is owed

Knowing who is owed a compliment is one half; knowing when it is paid is the other. At a new entrant's level these occasions are mostly plain courtesy.

The commonest is on meeting an officer out of doors, and on being addressed by one. When you meet an officer in the course of the day, in uniform and covered, you pay the compliment; when an officer addresses you, you pay it as the exchange opens. This is the daily bread of compliments and the moment the public sees most.

A second occasion is on parade, where compliments are paid as the parade requires: to the Sovereign or reigning house if present, to the Colour, and to the officer taking the parade. Here the compliment is collective, a whole body rendering respect together, and the smartness of many doing it as one is itself part of the compliment. The commands that set it going belong to the Drill and Ceremonial course.

Beyond these are the appropriate moments of military life generally: reporting to an officer and being dismissed, certain formal occasions, and the honouring of the flag as it is raised and lowered. A new entrant learns these by routine and by the example of seniors. What matters is the habit of mind: the compliment is owed at known, regular moments and rendered as a matter of course.

It is just as much a part of good order to know when a compliment is not paid, or is paid by other means than the hand. The most important of these, the rule about headdress, deserves to stand on its own.

The headdress rule: the hand salute and being uncovered

One firm rule must be known without hesitation: the hand salute is paid only when headdress is worn. A soldier who is covered may pay the hand salute. A soldier who is uncovered, that is bareheaded, does not salute with the hand.

The reason is part history, part practicality. The hand salute grew from the old courtesy of raising or touching the headdress in greeting, and it is properly made to the headdress. With none worn there is, in that older sense, nothing for the hand to be brought to. But being uncovered does not cancel the respect; it only changes how the respect is shown. A soldier who is uncovered comes smartly to attention, turns to face the person honoured, and pays respect by bearing and, where it fits, a spoken greeting. The respect is rendered in full, without the hand.

So a soldier who is bareheaded and addressed by an officer comes to attention rather than raising the hand. At a religious service, where headdress is removed, the compliments owed are paid by attention and steadiness. Fix the rule as a pair:

   COVERED                          UNCOVERED
   (headdress worn)                 (bareheaded)
   ------------------------------   ------------------------------
   Pay the HAND SALUTE.             Do NOT salute with the hand.

   Hand to the headdress,           Come smartly to ATTENTION,
   held, then cut away              turn to face the person,
   (taught and certified on         and pay respect by bearing
   the square, RMT 130).            (and a word where it fits).

         The respect is the same. Only the MEANS changes:
         covered, the hand renders it; uncovered, the body does.

Figure 2. The headdress rule as a pair. The compliment is owed either way; the rule decides only how it is paid. It guards against two faults: saluting with the hand while bareheaded, and imagining that being uncovered excuses the compliment. Neither is correct.

This rule matters most because it is the one most often got wrong and the one that most often arises off the square, in a corridor, an office, or at a service, where no drill instructor is there to prompt you. Learn it as a pair and you will not be caught out.

Paying compliments off parade, in plain clothes, and in a vehicle

Most compliments are paid not on the square but in the ordinary course of the day. The thread to hold is constant: the compliment is owed to the office and the Crown, so it is always paid; only its form changes with the dress, the place, and the circumstances.

Off parade, out of doors, in uniform and covered, the soldier pays the hand salute to an officer on meeting them. The courtesy does not lapse because the soldier is not on parade; this is the commonest occasion of all.

Indoors, the hand salute is ordinarily not given, unless the soldier is under arms or the occasion is formal, such as reporting in an officer's office. Everyday courtesies indoors are paid by coming to attention, by standing when an officer enters where that is the custom, and by the ordinary marks of respect. Much of the time indoors a soldier is also uncovered, in which case the headdress rule settles the matter.

In plain clothes, a soldier out of uniform does not give the military hand salute. They are not in the dress of the service and have no headdress of the kind the salute is made to, so its conditions are not present. The respect owed is no less real; it is paid in the civil manner that suits the occasion, a courteous greeting and a respectful bearing.

In a vehicle, a soldier who is driving does not salute. Both hands and the driver's whole attention belong to the safe control of the vehicle, and a salute that took a hand off the wheel would endanger people, which is no compliment at all. A passenger who is free to do so may pay it. This names a principle that recurs across the subject: a compliment is never paid in a way that is unsafe or that interferes with a duty. Where the hands are full, a load is carried, or a task must not be broken off, the compliment is paid by other means, as when uncovered.

   SITUATION                        WHAT THE NEW ENTRANT DOES
   ------------------------------   ----------------------------------
   Out of doors, in uniform,        Pay the hand salute on meeting
   covered, off parade              an officer (the usual case).

   Uncovered (bareheaded)           Come to attention; respect by
                                    bearing. No hand salute.

   Indoors, not under arms          Ordinarily no hand salute; pay
                                    respect by attention / standing.

   In plain clothes                 No military salute; a courteous
                                    civil greeting and bearing.

   Driving a vehicle                Do NOT salute; drive safely.
                                    A free passenger may pay it.

   Hands full / load carried /      No hand salute; come to attention
   where a salute would be unsafe   or turn the head, or greet by word.

Figure 3. The form a compliment takes off the square. The respect owed never changes; only the means changes to suit the dress, the place, and the demands of safety and duty. When in genuine doubt, follow the example of seniors: a compliment paid where none was required is a small thing, one withheld is not.

Returning the compliment, promptly and smartly

A salute is an exchange. The junior gives it; the senior returns it, and the return is as much a part of the courtesy as the giving. This follows from what the salute means. Because the compliment is owed to the commission and not begged of the individual, a senior who receives one is bound to acknowledge it promptly and smartly. An officer who lets a salute go unanswered, or returns it carelessly, fails in courtesy exactly as a soldier does who renders a sloppy one. No dignity is guarded by ignoring a junior's compliment, and none lost by returning it well.

For a new entrant the lesson is twofold. First, render your own compliment promptly and without grudging, whether or not the other half follows; your part is complete in the rendering. Second, understand that you will one day be on the receiving side, and the duty to return a compliment well is just as real as the duty to give one. Smartness matters because the salute is the act of military life the public sees most often. A salute given and returned crisply says that those who serve hold themselves to a standard when no one is forcing them to; one given limp, late, or left unanswered says the opposite. The standard of a salute in the street is, in miniature, the standard of the whole Army.

A note on the drill: where the execution is learned

Be clear about the boundary of this lesson: a new entrant should not finish it thinking they now know how to salute with their body. They know what the salute means and when it is owed. The making of it lives elsewhere.

The hand salute by numbers, the path of the arm and the cut of the hand, where the hand is placed and how long it is held, the timing of a salute as you pass an officer on the march, and the turn of the head for eyes right or eyes left, are all taught, practised, and certified in person on the square in the Drill and Ceremonial course (RMT 130), under a drill instructor who can see your carriage and correct it. A movement built into the body must be watched as it is made; no written description can replace an instructor's eye on the line of your arm. So this lesson stops, deliberately, at the edge of the movement. Take to the square the understanding you carry from here, and the drill instructor will teach your body to render it correctly.

In Practice: A New Entrant at the Guardroom

A national who joined the Royal Kaharagian Army a fortnight ago is walking back to the lines past the guardroom, in uniform and wearing their beret, when an officer they have never met comes the other way. They feel the flicker of uncertainty every recruit feels at first, then remember: the compliment is owed not to this stranger as a person but to the Crown's commission the officer carries. There is nothing to weigh up. Covered as they are, they pay the hand salute smartly and with pride, and the officer returns it just as smartly. Two people who serve have greeted one another, and the new entrant walks on understanding they have lost nothing and lowered themselves in nothing.

A moment later the picture changes. Called to report inside the guardroom, they remove their beret as they step in, now uncovered. The same officer is there. Bareheaded, the hand salute is not given, so they come smartly to attention and pay respect by their bearing as they report. Later that day they pass the officer again, this time at the wheel of a vehicle, carefully reversing into a tight space. They do not take a hand from the wheel to salute, because the first duty of a driver is to drive safely; both hands and their whole attention stay on the task. Three meetings, three forms, one unbroken respect. Their hand salute is still a fortnight rough, but they have grasped what the square cannot teach on its own: what the compliment means, and when, and in what form, it is owed.

Check Your Understanding

The lesson insists there is "no servility" in the salute. What does the salute actually mean, and to what is it paid rather than to the person? Explain why it follows that your personal opinion of an officer is beside the point, and why the senior is bound to return the salute.
State the firm rule about the hand salute and headdress. What does a soldier do instead when uncovered, and is the respect owed any less? Give one example, off the parade square, where the headdress rule decides how the compliment is paid.
Describe how a compliment is paid in three off-parade situations: in plain clothes, while driving a vehicle, and when an officer is met out of doors in uniform and covered. What single principle runs through all three, so that the respect owed never changes even though the form does?

Reflection (write a short paragraph): This lesson teaches the salute as a courtesy whose whole meaning is that it is paid to the Crown's commission and not the individual, and the next course (Drill and Ceremonial, RMT 130) will teach your body to make it on the square. Why should understanding what a compliment means come before, and sit beneath, learning to perform it? How does rendering a courtesy smartly to someone you do not know, or may not admire, because it is owed to the office rather than the person, connect to the wider discipline and the customs and courtesies that Lesson 03 described? And why might so small and so visible an act, given and returned in the street, matter to the standing of the whole Army?

Summary

A salute is the time-honoured greeting and mark of mutual respect between those who serve, given with pride and never as servility. The junior gives it, the senior returns it, and the return is as much a part of the courtesy as the giving.
The compliment is paid to what the person or flag represents, never the individual: to the Crown's commission an officer holds, to the Crown in the Sovereign and reigning house, and to the Colour. A friendly foreign officer is paid the same compliment, because it honours the office of a commissioned officer, not the flag they serve under.
Because it is owed to the office and not begged of the person, a soldier's private opinion of an officer is beside the point, and they lose nothing by rendering it.
Compliments are paid on the ordinary occasions of service: meeting and being addressed by an officer out of doors, on parade, and at the appropriate regular moments, rendered as a matter of course.
The firm rule: the hand salute is paid only when headdress is worn. Uncovered, a soldier comes smartly to attention and pays respect by other means, the respect rendered in full either way.
Off the square the form adjusts but never lapses: covered, the hand salute; indoors, ordinarily attention; in plain clothes, a courteous civil greeting; while driving, no salute, because safety comes first; and where the hands are full or a salute would be unsafe, respect by attention, a turn of the head, or a word.
A compliment is returned promptly and smartly; the standard of a salute in the street is, in miniature, the standard of the whole Army.
The meaning and occasions are learned here; the salute by numbers, the timing on the march, and eyes right or left are taught and certified on the square in the Drill and Ceremonial course (RMT 130). The Crown's commission the salute honours is set out in full in the Introduction to the Royal Kaharagian Army course (RMT 110), and the customs and courtesies it belongs to in Lesson 03.

Compliments and the Salute