The Joint Service Defence College (JSDC) was a training academy for
British military
The British Armed Forces, also known as His Majesty's Armed Forces, are the military forces responsible for the defence of the United Kingdom, its Overseas Territories and the Crown Dependencies. They also promote the UK's wider interests, su ...
personnel from 1983 to 1997. It has since been amalgamated into the
Joint Services Command and Staff College.
History
The college was established as the Combined Staff College (CSC) in 1947.
[National Maritime Museum Archive]
/ref> The college was an independent Ministry of Defence Establishment offering courses to officers of all three services.[ It was based at Latimer House in Latimer, Buckinghamshire. It was renamed the National Defence College (NDC) in 1971. On 12 February 1974, the IRA detonated a bomb at the NDC; there were no fatalities.A Chronology of the Conflict - 1974]
/ref> In 1983 CSC was renamed the Joint Service Defence College (JSDC), and moved to the Royal Naval College, Greenwich.[ The college was closed in 1997 and amalgamated into the new Joint Services Command and Staff College.][
]
Staff and students
The Commandant was a Major-general or equivalent. Senior Directing Staff included Royal Navy, British Army, Royal Air Force, civilian colonels and equivalent: civilian G5 or Assistant Secretary (Counsellor
Counselor or counsellor may refer to:
A professional In diplomacy and government
* Counsellor of State, senior member of the British royal family to whom the Monarch can delegate some functions in case of unavailability
* Counselor (dipl ...
). Officers attending the course, which focussed on managing tri-service operations, were typically of lieutenant-colonel rank or equivalent[ were held every two years, each with 60 officers (typically 17 from each service plus 9 others from the civil service or the police). Those officers passing the course, or serving on the directing staff for at least six months, received the letters ''jsdc''. The majority of students went on to joint, central staff or international appointments. The crest featured a ]cormorant
Phalacrocoracidae is a family of approximately 40 species of aquatic birds commonly known as cormorants and shags. Several different classifications of the family have been proposed, but in 2021 the IOC adopted a consensus taxonomy of seven ge ...
, which was also the name of the college magazine.
See also
* National Defence College (disambiguation)
References
{{reflist
Staff colleges
Military education and training in the United Kingdom