History Main / GentlemenRankers

* In ''Film/CarryOnSergeant'' both Terrence Longdon and Creator/KennethWilliams' characters were examples of these, albeit in different ways:

# Of low rank (E1-E4/5 in US terminology, which translates as Sergeant and below, or the naval equivalents).

* UsefulNotes/TELawrence ended UsefulNotes/WorldWarI as a full colonel, but after leaving the Army he enlisted in the RAF under the name "John Hume Ross". Although his application was initially rejected as the recruiting officer [[note]] who happened to be W.E. Johns, author of the ''Literature/{{Biggles}}'' books [[/note]] on suspicion of using a false name, he was subsequently accepted but later forced out when his actual identity became known. Undeterred, Lawrence later enlisted in the Army as "T.E. Shaw" -- under which identity he later transferred to the RAF, in which he served for ten years.

* ''Series/DadsArmy'': Sergeant Wilson behaved very much like the cool, calm, collected, and softly spoken officer (in contrast to the order-barking martinet that was Captain Mainwaring) in his UsefulNotes/WorldWarII Home Guard duties, however this was eventually explained as him actually having been an officer in the First World War.

# Of low rank (E1-E4/5 in US terminology; Private-Sergeant in older terminology, or the naval equivalents).

* In S.A. Swann's ''Literature/{{Apotheosis}}'' series, Nickolai Rajastan is a scion of the royal house of his homeworld, and was an officer in the elite Temple Guard until a poorly chosen dalliance led to his exile. He washed up on [[LibertariansInSpace Bakunin]], where he was reduced to a common mercenary.

* ComicBook/HowlingCommandos: Pinky Pinkerton is from an upper-class military family. After getting kicked out of a military academy, he fell out of touch with his family, and when WWII began, he enlisted in the commandos as a private, hoping to avoid his high-achieving older brother.

* Lucky Jack Aubrey, of the ''Literature/AubreyMaturin'' series, spent some time "before the mast" early in his career. He was disrated by his captain because he'd violated orders, smuggling a whore aboard ship and hiding her in the cable tier. He also got flogged. He spent some time as a common sailor before earning his way back into the captain's good graces and being rated midshipman again.

* ''Series/DadsArmy'': Sergeant Wilson behaved very much like the cool, calm, collected, and softly spoken officer (in contrast to the order barking martinet that was Captain Mainwaring) in his UsefulNotes/WorldWarII Home Guard duties, however this was eventually explained as him actually having been an officer in the First World War.

* ''Series/BlakesSeven'': Single-episode villain Jarvik joined [[TheEmpire the Federation]] as an officer, but quit and rejoined as an enlisted man because he hated computers and liked manual labour and fighting.

* The British Household Cavalry (currently made up of the Life Guards and the Blues and Royals) were traditionally the sovereign's bodyguard and, as such, exclusively recruited from the landed gentry and aristocracy even for the lowest enlisted ranks (no longer a practice). Apocryphal stories say that the units use variations of "corporal" rather than "sergeant" because the latter rank is supposedly derived from the Latin ''serviens'', meaning "servant". No member of the British upper class would be caught dead being referred to as a servant in any way.