Conduct unbecoming explained

Conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman (or conduct unbecoming for short) is an offense that is subject to court martial in the armed forces of some nations.

Use in the United Kingdom

The phrase was used as a charge in courts martial of the British Armed Forces in the 18th and the early 19th centuries although it was not defined as a specific offence in the Articles of War.^[1] For instance, in 1813, Colonel Sir J Eamer was brought before a court martial "For behaving in a scandalous, infamous manner, such as is unbecoming the character of an officer and a gentleman, towards Captain B V Symes of the same regiment..."^[2] The charge seems to have been first codified under the Naval Discipline Act of 10 August 1860,^[3] which states, "Article 24: Every Officer subject to this Act who shall be guilty of Cruelty, or of any scandalous or fraudulent Conduct, shall be dismissed with Disgrace from Her Majesty's Service; and every Officer subject to this Act who shall be guilty of any other Conduct unbecoming the Character of an Officer shall be dismissed, with or without Disgrace, from Her Majesty's Service."^[4]

Use in the United States

The offense is defined in the punitive code, Article 133, of the United States Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), enacted at .

The elements are:

1. That the accused did or omitted to do certain acts; and
2. That, in the circumstances, these acts or omissions constituted conduct unbecoming an officer and gentleman.^[5]

Here "officer" is understood to include all commissioned officers, cadets, and midshipmen, hence the more common term conduct unbecoming. A "gentleman" (in this case a term not limited to men) is understood to have a duty to avoid dishonesty, indecency, indecorum, lawlessness, injustice, unfairness, and cruelty.^[6]

Police discipline

"Conduct unbecoming an officer" is also used in some civil police agencies.^[7]

See also

• A Few Good Men, 1992 film centring around a trial for this offence
• An Officer and a Gentleman, 1982 film
• Conduct prejudicial to good order and discipline
• Conduct Unbecoming, 1975 film based on a play by Barry England
• Military tradition
• Unsportsmanlike conduct, a cautionable offence in association football, until 1997 called "ungentlemanly conduct".^[8]

Notes and References

1. Book: The British Army in the West Indies: Society and the Military in the Revolutionary Age . Roger Norman . Buckley . . 1998 . 0-8130-1604-5 . 239.
2. https://books.google.com/books?id=Bq1BAAAAYAAJ&dq=Conduct+unbecoming+an+officer+and+a+gentleman+british+army&pg=PA650 E Samuel, An Historical Account of the British army: and of the Law Military William Clowes, London 1816 (p.650)
3. Book: Nigel Rees

   . Why Do We Say ...? . Rees, N. . 1987 . 0-7137-1944-3 . Nigel Rees .

4. http://www.pdavis.nl/NDA1861.htm William Loney RN – Background – The Naval Discipline Act, 1861
5. https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/10/933- Article 133
6. Web site: Article 133: Conduct unbecoming an officer and gentleman . Powers, Rod . About.com . 2008-05-16 . 14 March 2007 . https://web.archive.org/web/20070314091236/http://usmilitary.about.com/od/punitivearticles/a/mcm133.htm . dead .
7. Book: 19 May 2008 . Silver . Isidore. Public Employee Discharge and Discipline . Third . 1 . . 978-0-7355-2540-5 . 240.
8. https://web.archive.org/web/20071108213002/http://www.fifa.com/classicfootball/history/law/historylaw3.html "The History of the Laws of the Game 1990–2000"