I am writing a short bio of a Canadian veteran. He mentioned off hand that the artillery is a place where gentlemen served and that it carried the most status in the Army and in the sort of broader social circles. Is this true or does anyone have any support for this? The guy is really old school, pushing 100, served with high distinction in the second world war, and has a long history of family military service.
For a long time, no. I would say up until the First World War, most militaries in the West put more honor in the cavalry than in the artillery, more so if the country was a Monarchy of some sort. The reason behind it is due to the power cavalry had before the Early Modern Era and who was commanding or in it (being aristocratic or knight class people).
When things changed in favor of the people during the French Revolution, the cavalry wad the hardest hit from nobility exodus where upwards of 90% had fled France. Conversely, the artillery had survived the fleeing and purges with around 40% loss of officers. This is due to the more middle class origins of the artillery officers before the Revolution, as a rich middle class parents could pay for children to go to military academies. Due to the middle class air of the artillery, they were looked down by the aristocratic cavalry.
So in general, no, but it changed somewhere around WWI I think.