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Recruiting sergeant

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A recruiting sergeant Is a British or American soldier of the rank of sergeant who is tasked to enlist recruits. The term originated in the British army of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The unscrupulous methods used by some to trick the innocent have been the subject of several traditional songs composed by their victims as a warning to others. Notable is the version of the Recruiting sergeant sung by The Pogues.

A recruit would be given the Kings shilling as a mark of the contract made.

The term has passed into the English language to mean any set of circumstances which recruits or fails to recruit volunteers to the army. See Daily Telegraph headline Iraq deaths make poor recruiting sergeant for the Pentagon


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