Oath of Allegiance (United Kingdom) - Armed Forces

Armed Forces

All persons enlisting in the British Army and the Royal Marines are required by the Army Act 1955 to attest to the following oath or equivalent affirmation:

I... swear by Almighty God that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second, Her Heirs and Successors, and that I will, as in duty bound, honestly and faithfully defend Her Majesty, Her Heirs and Successors, in Person, Crown and Dignity against all enemies, and will observe and obey all orders of Her Majesty, Her Heirs and Successors, and of the generals and officers set over me. So help me God.

The same oath is made by recruits to the Royal Air Force under the Air Force Act 1955, with the substitution of the words "air officers" for "generals". No oath of allegiance is sworn by members of the Royal Navy, which is not maintained under an Act of Parliament but by the royal prerogative, or by Royal Marines officers, who unlike their Army counterparts are not enlisted before they are commissioned. There is also no Oath of Allegiance to join the Army Cadet Force.

Read more about this topic:  Oath Of Allegiance (United Kingdom)

Famous quotes containing the words armed and/or forces:

    For books are not absolutely dead things, but do contain a potency of life in them to be as active as that soul was whose progeny they are; nay, they do preserve as in a vial the purest efficacy and extraction of that living intellect that bred them. I know they are as lively, and as vigorously productive, as those fabulous dragon’s teeth; and being sown up and down, may chance to spring up armed men.
    John Milton (1608–1674)

    Anarchism is the great liberator of man from the phantoms that have held him captive; it is the arbiter and pacifier of the two forces for individual and social harmony.
    Emma Goldman (1869–1940)