In his (excellent) book Acts of War (1985, reprinted 2004) Richard Holmes writes interestingly about the soldier’s assumption of a new identity on enlistment, and how this is reinforced by the wearing of uniform and the close military haircut. But he adds:

The shaving of the upper lip was forbidden in the British army until 1916.

Now Richard Holmes is an author who gets things right, and I can’t believe this book would have gone through various editions in 20 years without any dubious assertions being challenged. Yet pictures of the BEF in 1914 show a mixture of shaven and unshaven upper lips:

So did the Army not bother to enforce its more trivial rules? (That doesn’t sound like the Army to me) Or did men have to ask permission to shave?

And why did the rules change in 1916? Had this anything to do with the introduction of conscription? Was it felt acceptable to compel a man to fight, kill and be killed, but unacceptable to demand that he grow a moustache?