Several men who serve general purpose (5)
I believe the answer is:
tenor
'purpose' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'several men' is the wordplay.
'several' becomes 'ten' (I've seen this in other clues).
'men' becomes 'or' (Other Ranks: non-commissioned soldiers).
'ten'+'or'='TENOR'
'who serve general' is the link.
This may not be right. Some or all of it may belong to another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for tenor that I've seen before include "Male voice (one of three?)" , "Pavarotti, maybe" , "Placido Domingo, say" , "Male voice of high pitch, like Luciano" , "Pavarotti, for example" .)