Of the Alma he notes, ‘When all was over I could not help crying like a child’ (Verner, i. 73). Three days before Inkerman he had written to Queen Victoria gloomily about the situation of the army. He was ‘dreadfully knocked up and quite worn out’ by the battle, and was persuaded to go to Balaclava for rest. He was on board the frigate Retribution, when it narrowly escaped wreck in the great storm of 14 November. On the 25th he left the Crimea for Constantinople, and on 27 Dec. a medical board invalided him to England. He was mentioned in despatches (Lond. Gaz. 8 Oct., 12 and 22 Nov. 1854) and received the thanks of parliament, the medal with 4 clasps, the Turkish medal, and the G.C.B. (5 July 1855). He declined the governorship of Gibraltar, and was anxious to return to the Crimea. When general Sir James Simpson [q. v.] resigned command of the army there in November, the duke tried in vain to succeed him. In January 1856 he was sent to Paris, to take part in the conference on the further conduct of the war, but the conclusion of peace in March made its plans of no effect.
On 15 July Lord Hardinge [q. v.] resigned, and the duke succeeded him as general commanding in chief. He was promoted general, and on 28 July was sworn of the privy council. The breakdown in the Crimea had led to great changes in army administration. The secretary of state for war (separated in 1854 from the colonies) took over the powers of the secretary at war, and of the board of ordnance, which was abolished. He also took over the militia and yeomanry from the home office and the commissariat from the treasury. He became responsible to parliament for the whole military administration; but the general commanding in chief, as representing the crown, enjoyed some independence in matters of discipline and command, appointments and promotions. The abolition of the board of ordnance brought the artillery and engineers under his authority, and the duke was made colonel of these two corps on 10 May 1861. The amalgamation (of which he was a strong advocate) of the European troops of the East India Company with the army of the crown in 1862 gave him general control of troops serving in India.
The volunteer movement of 1859 brought a new force into existence. He was not unfriendly to it, but had no great faith in it, and was opposed to a capitation grant. He became colonel of the 1st City of London brigade on 24 Feb. 1860. He was president of the National Rifle Association, which was founded in 1859 and had till 1887 its ranges at Wimbledon, on land of which he was principal owner; then he found it necessary to call upon it to go elsewhere, and the ranges were transferred to Bisley. He took an active part in military education, and helped to found the Staff College. He had been appointed a commissioner for Sandhurst and for the Duke of York's school in 1850, and was made governor of the Military Academy at Woolwich in 1862. On the death of the Prince Consort he exchanged the colonelcy of the Scots fusilier guards for that of the Grenadier guards. On 9 Nov. 1862 he was made field-marshal.
During the first thirteen years of his command the duke was in accord with successive war ministers, though he was continually remonstrating against reductions or urging increase of the army. But in December 1868 Edward (afterwards Viscount) Cardwell [q. v.] became secretary of state, with Gladstone as premier, and they took in hand a series of reforms which were most distasteful to him. First of all, the so-called dual government of the army, which divided responsibility and was a hindrance to reform, was abolished. By the War Office Act of 1870 the commander-in-chief was definitely subordinated to the war minister, and became one of three departmental chiefs charged respectively with combatant personnel, supply, and finance. To mark the change, the duke was required in Sept. 1871 to remove from the Horse Guards to Pall Mall. He regarded this as a blow not only to his own dignity but to the rights of the crown, and the Queen intervened on his behalf; but he had to give way.
The reconstruction of the war office was followed by the adoption of short service, the formation of an army reserve, the linking of battalions, and their localisation. The purchase of commissions was abolished, and seniority tempered by selection became the principle of promotion. The duke was opposed to all these innovations. His watchwords were discipline, esprit de corps, and the regimental system, all of which seemed to him to be threatened. But holding it to be for the interest of the crown and the army that he should remain at his post, he accepted a system of which he disapproved. The system held its ground notwithstanding party changes, and in 1881 it was carried a stage further by H. C. E. Childers [q. v. Suppl. I], the
