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Partly, maybe. But I think it is also largely a call against the way soldiers were treated in Britain. Even though the notion of stalwart soldiery was a little more apparent in the late 19th century than in the 18th, there was still an expectation that they would lay their lives on the line for very little in the way of pay and provisions. Their families were not looked after to anywhere near the extent they should have been, and they were afforded precious little respect for their profession - the legacy of a culture who feared and disdained the notion of a standing army at the call of the monarch.
Like I say things had changed somewhat. But there was a still a tendency for popular culture to be very loudly supportive of them whilst they were having bits blown off them, but slander them as untrustworthy rogues to a man, the rest of the time.
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