The Royal Military College (RMC), founded in 1801 and established in 1802 at Great Marlow and High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire,

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, but moved in October 1812 to Sandhurst, Berkshire, was a

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurkha ...

military academy A military academy or service academy is an educational institution which prepares candidates for service in the officer corps. It normally provides education in a military environment, the exact definition depending on the country concerned. ...

for training

infantry Infantry is a military specialization which engages in ground combat on foot. Infantry generally consists of light infantry, mountain infantry, motorized infantry & mechanized infantry, airborne infantry, air assault infantry, and mar ...

and cavalry officers of the British and

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Armies. The RMC was reorganised at the outbreak of the

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, but some of its units remained operational at Sandhurst and Aldershot. In 1947, the Royal Military College was merged with the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, to form the present-day all-purpose Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.

History

Royal Military College Great Marlow, 1810

Pre-dating the college, the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, had been established in 1741 to train artillery and engineer officers, but there was no such provision for training infantry and cavalry officers. The Royal Military College was conceived by Colonel John Le Marchant, whose scheme for establishing schools for the military instruction of officers at High Wycombe and Great Marlow first met strong resistance on the grounds of cost.Major-General John Gaspard Le Marchant (1766–1812)
at da.mod.uk/colleges (Defence Academy web site) There were already some small private military academies for aspiring infantry and cavalry officers in existence, notably one which had been operated at Chelsea by Lewis Lochée from about 1770 until he wound it up in 1790. But none of them had any formal approval by the British government.J. E. O. Screen, “The 'Royal Military Academy' of Lewis Lochée“ in ''Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research'' Vol. 70, No. 283 (Autumn 1992), pp. 143-156 In 1799, Le Marchant established a school for staff officers at High Wycombe.''Sovereign's Parade Programme'' (RMA Sandhurst, April 2012) In 1801, Parliament voted a grant of £30,000 for his more ambitious proposals, and in 1801 the school for staff officers at High Wycombe became the Senior Department of the new Military College. In 1802, having been appointed as the first Lieutenant Governor of the College, Le Marchant opened its Junior Department at a large house called Remnantz in West Street, Great Marlow, to train gentleman cadets for the infantry and cavalry regiments of the

and for the presidency armies of

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.RMAS: The story of Sandhurst
at army.mod.uk, accessed 6 July 2009 1802 was the same year as the founding of the French Army's Saint-Cyr and of West Point in the

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. General Sir William Harcourt was appointed as the first Governor of the Royal Military College at Great Marlow and continued in post until 1811. In January 1809, the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Sou ...

established its own East India Military Seminary at Addiscombe to train officers for its armies. In 1812, the College's Junior Department moved from Great Marlow into purpose-built buildings at Sandhurst designed by James Wyatt, and was soon joined there by the Senior Department, migrating from High Wycombe. In 1858 this became a separate institution, the Staff College. On the outbreak of the Second World War, many of the cadets and staff of the Royal Military College were mobilised for active service, but the buildings at Sandhurst remained the home of the RMC's 161 Infantry Officer Cadet Training Unit. In 1942, this unit moved to Mons Barracks, Aldershot, and for the rest of the war the Sandhurst campus was used as a

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Officer Cadet Training Unit. In 1947, a new Royal Military Academy Sandhurst was formed on the site of the Royal Military College, merging the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich (which had trained officers for the

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and Royal Engineers from 1741 to 1939) and the Royal Military College (1802 to 1942), with the objective of providing officer training for all arms and services.

Governors and Commandants

:See List of Governors and Commandants of Sandhurst The Royal Military College was originally led by a Governor, who was a figurehead, often non-resident, a Lieutenant Governor, who had actual day-to-day command of the college, and a Commandant, who was the officer in charge of the cadets. In 1812, the posts of Lieutenant Governor and Commandant were merged into the role of Commandant. In 1888 the two remaining senior posts, Governor and Commandant, were merged into the single appointment of Governor and Commandant, which in 1902 was retitled as "Commandant".

Notable cadets

The most notable cadets of RMC Sandhurst include: * Sir William Denison (1825–1826), Governor of New South Wales * Field Marshal

Prince Edward of Saxe-Weimar Prince William Augustus Edward of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, , PC(Ire) (11 October 1823 – 16 November 1902) was a British military officer of German parents. After a career in the Grenadier Guards, he became Major General commanding the Brigade ...

(1840–1841) * Field Marshal

Frederick Roberts, 1st Earl Roberts Field Marshal Frederick Sleigh Roberts, 1st Earl Roberts, (30 September 1832 – 14 November 1914) was a British Victorian era general who became one of the most successful British military commanders of his time. Born in India to an Anglo-Iri ...

(1850–1851) * Frederick Stanley, 16th Earl of Derby (1861–1862),

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(1876) * Field Marshal Herbert Plumer, 1st Viscount Plumer (1875–1876) * John Hope, 1st Marquess of Linlithgow (1878–1879), Governor-General of Australia *

Ronald Munro Ferguson, 1st Viscount Novar Ronald Craufurd Munro Ferguson, 1st Viscount Novar, (6 March 1860 – 30 March 1934) was a British politician who served as the sixth Governor-General of Australia, in office from 1914 to 1920. Munro Ferguson was born in Kirkcaldy, Fife, Sco ...

(1879–1880), Governor-General of Australia * Field Marshal

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(1881–1882) *

Sir Charles Fergusson, 7th Baronet Sir Charles Fergusson, 7th Baronet, (17 January 1865 – 20 February 1951), was a British Army officer and the third Governor-General of New Zealand. Early life and military career Fergusson was the son of Sir James Fergusson, 6th Baronet, ...

(1882–1883), Governor-General of New Zealand * Field Marshal Earl Haig (1884–1885) * Sir Winston Churchill (1894) *

Prince Alexander of Teck Major General Alexander Cambridge, 1st Earl of Athlone (Alexander Augustus Frederick William Alfred George; born Prince Alexander of Teck; 14 April 1874 – 16 January 1957), was a British Army commander and major-general who served as Governor- ...

(1894), later the Earl of Athlone, Governor-General of the Union of South Africa and

* Field Marshal Earl Wavell (1900–1901), Viceroy of India * Field Marshal Viscount Montgomery of Alamein (1907–1908) *

Sir Oswald Mosley, 6th Baronet Sir Oswald Ernald Mosley, 6th Baronet (16 November 1896 – 3 December 1980) was a British politician during the 1920s and 1930s who rose to fame when, having become disillusioned with mainstream politics, he turned to fascism. He was a member ...

(1914), Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster * Field Marshal Kodandera Madappa Cariappa (1918-1919), First native-Indian full General of the Indian Army * Field Marshal Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester (1919), Governor General of Australia * Field Marshal Ayub Khan (1926–1927), President of Pakistan * Ian Fleming (1927), author, creator of

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* David Niven (1930), actor, novelist * General Maharaj Shri Rajendrasinhji Jadeja, First Chief of Army Staff of Indian Army and second Commander in Chief of Indian Army. Also first Indian to go to Sandhurst. * *Thakur

Nathu Singh Rathore Lieutenant General Nathu Singh Rathore was an Indian Army officer from Gumanpura, Rajasthan. Early years Singh was born in 1900, although official records say he was born on 10 May 1902 at Gumanpura in the princely state of Dungarpur. He w ...

, Lieutenant General, Indian Army. Also second Indian to graduate from Sandhurst. *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Royal Military College 1802 establishments in England 1947 disestablishments in England Military academies of the United Kingdom