Osborne and Trotter were both drafted as officers because of their professions; they are both regarded highly in society. Stanhope and Raleigh however were drafted as officers because of the professions of family members, Stanhope’s father is a vicar and Raleigh’s uncle is a senior officer, meaning he is most likely from a military background.
In terms of age of the officers, Osborne is by far the most aged of the officers being called uncle says this quite clearly that they are mocking his age in a friendly manner. Though Osborne is older Stanhope is senior to him, many comments are made that Osborne should run the company but Osborne sticks up for the young commander. Although Stanhope is superior he values the opinion of his lower officers.
It is clear from the conversations that they all enjoy sport, especially “Ruggers” or rugby as more commonly known. It shows that they are all abundant in physical strength and it shows that Stanhope has good leadership skills as he captained the cricket team in school. Osborne however trumps him by telling Raleigh how he capped for the England rugby team, but he swore Raleigh to secrecy so he may be lying about that.
The officers are all fighting so that they can get back to their families in England and get on with their lives. They are fighting for their own freedom and the freedom of their families. However Stanhope thinks that the war has changed him so much he will never be the same when he gets home.
At one point Trotter takes out some dirty postcards to show to his fellow officers, in today’s standards that would be no more than a page three tabloid cut-out if not less, but their raising has taught them that it is wrong to treat women so disrespectfully so they do not look at the postcards.
The officers all trust one another but this trust is breached on one occasion when Raleigh writes a letter and Stanhope demands to see it thinking that he may have written something about him in it which would alert his family to his change since he has been on the front line.
Officer values were the same in both the German trenches as the Allied ones, such as on one occasion a man lay screaming in no mans land in clear line of German fire and a German officer got up out of the trench and shouted to come get him some help and get him out of no-mans land.
The officers, especially the older ones amongst the bunch enjoy gardening and they talk about the gardens they have at home, this shows that they have hobbies back home of tending to the gardens. This hints at a sort of romantic notion as they are gardening which is a sensitive thing to do.
The officers use a different language than the soldiers, with slang such as “Chap” and referring to Osborne as “Uncle”.
It tells in the book of how they are used to a privileged life style as they talk about having servants, and even in the trench they have a cook and cleaner called Mason, they are used to high quality food as when they hear they are having cutlets for dinner they don’t seem too pleased.
One of the officers is unlike the others, he doesn’t want to fight for his freedom, he tries faking a severe headache that cant be diagnosed to be sent back to England to see his family, he sees sense when Stanhope threatens to shoot him and say it is an accident and he stays.
Much is learned about the officer’s class in Journeys End but most of all it shows the difference between the normal soldiers and the officers such as the food, the language used and the general atmosphere between the officers.