Unprofessional Professonal Soldiers?

Most of the British charcters in Wee Wille Winkie were professional soldiers or their family members. But many of the soldiers acted unprofessionally in my opinion.

Of course Mott was a child soldier so he has some excuse for not being fully professonal. To be precise Wee Wille Winkie was filmed in January to March 1937. Douglas Scott lived from May 31, 1925 to June 23, 1988 and was still eleven while his scenes wree filmed. Most viewers of the film probably thought that Mott was roughly about that age - clearly not an adult or even a teenager yet.

So Mott has some excuse for pulling pranks like blowing reville into Sergeant's MacDuff's ear. And such pranks were probably rare, since even the Colonel, who didn't seem like one to give compliments easily, complimented Mott.

But the sergeant and his crony Pipe Major Sneath can't use being children to excuse childish behavior. It is possible they where in the British army since they were boys Mott's age. And even if they enlisted as men and not boys, they would have been in their twenties, or maybe even only 18, when they enlisted. Clyde Cook (Sneath) turned 46, and Victor MacLaglen (Macduff) turned 51, in 1937. I believe that there may have been mandatory retirement after 21 years service, so MacDuff and Sneath should have been in the army for decades and MacDuff should have been used to jumping out of bed when the reville was sounded, no matter how much he loathed doing so.

As far as I can tell, there should have been a full battalion of the fictional 7th Highlanders at the fort, with 8 companies of about 100 men each. Each company would have several corporals and sergeants, under a color sergeant, and about two lieutenants and a captain. The battalion headquarters would include a number of enlisted men, such as the drum major, pipe major, and sergeant major, each of them senior to all of the sergeants, and a bunch of officers below the colonel. Since Macduff identities himself as a plain sergeant, he would have authority over only the enlisted men in his platoon or squad.

If Lt. Brandes was Macduff's immediate superior, he could give him orders. But I think it would have been an abuse of authority for Macduff to claim such a wimsical order was justification for drilling a number of soldiers along with Priscilla, especially during the noon day sun which the colonel disapproved of.

Enlisted soldiers weren't rich, but they did get paid. If MacDuff and his cronies wanted a small uniform for Priscilla, they could probably have scraped toggether enough money for one, instead of shrinking Mott's new uniform.

Mott came close to violating regulations when he told them off, but I think he was quite justified.

And when Mott later refused to give or trade one of his puppies to Priscilla, entirely within his rights, Macduff & co. made up a flim flam story and took one away from him, and made him feel grateful that they left the other one. Macdulf & Co. came very close to stealing from Mott twice.

Sergeant Macduff also punched other soldiers a few times. And no doubt it would have been right for Macduff to beat up disobedience soldiers, but he seemed to hit whoever he wanted for any reason.

So Macduff seemed to be an unprofessional and undisciplined soldier.

I'm not sure why Mott told Priscilla Macduff was a great soldier. Maybe Mott believed all the stories Macduff told about his heroism, no doubt as exaggerated as the Colonel's stories to Priscilla. Or maybe MacDulff saved Mott's life from some accident - I doubt whether Mott had ever been a battle to be rescued. Or maybe Macduff had rescued Mott from a life of poverty by getting him enlisted in the regiment.