Stuffy male brought out with soldiers preceding (5)
I believe the answer is:
prior
'preceding' is the definition.
(similar in meaning)
'stuffy male brought out with soldiers' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'soldiers' could be 'or' (Other Ranks) and 'or' is located in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for prior that I've seen before include "Erstwhile" , "Head of a religious order" , "Former - head of religious house" , "Earlier, coming before another in time" , "Previous; abbot's deputy" .)