RAF Staff College, Bracknell
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The RAF Staff College at
Bracknell Bracknell () is a town and civil parish in Berkshire, England, the westernmost area within the Greater London Built-up Area, Greater London Urban Area and the administrative centre of the borough of Bracknell Forest. It lies to the east of Re ...
was a
Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...
staff college active for most of the second half of the 20th century. Its role was the training of
staff officer A military staff or general staff (also referred to as army staff, navy staff, or air staff within the individual services) is a group of officers, enlisted, and civilian staff who serve the commander of a division or other large milita ...
s in the administrative, staff and policy aspects of air force matters. Its motto was ''Visu et Nisu'' which is Latin for ''by vision and effort''. The equivalent in the
British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...
was the
Staff College, Camberley Staff College, Camberley, Surrey, was a staff college for the British Army and the presidency armies of British India (later merged to form the Indian Army). It had its origins in the Royal Military College, High Wycombe, founded in 1799, which ...
and the equivalent in the
Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...
was the Royal Naval Staff College, Greenwich.


History

Ramslade House was built as suburban-style villa in 1840 and then substantially re-modelled by Lieutenant Colonel Frederick Mackenzie in 1895. The house became the headquarters for Second Tactical Air Force in 1943 during the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
. The Staff College at Bracknell was formed by transferring a major portion of the Staff College at Bulstrode Park to Ramslade House in July 1945.
Air Vice-Marshal Air vice-marshal (Air Vce Mshl or AVM) is an air officer rank used by some air forces, with origins from the Royal Air Force. The rank is also used by the air forces of many countries which have historical British influence and it is sometime ...
Ronald Graham Ronald Lewis Graham (October 31, 1935July 6, 2020) was an American mathematician credited by the American Mathematical Society as "one of the principal architects of the rapid development worldwide of discrete mathematics in recent years". He ...
, the then Commandant at Bulstrode Park, became the first commandant at Bracknell. On 1 May 1946 the Staff College was placed under the control of Reserve Command. Four years later, on 1 August 1950, that command was renamed Home Command. It was subsequently transferred to Training Command on 1 June 1968 and then transferred again to RAF Support Command on 13 June 1973. The final transfer came on 1 April 1994 when the Staff College was transferred to Personnel and Training Command but this arrangement was short-lived as the College closed on 1 January 1997 when RAF staff training responsibilities were transferred to the newly established
Joint Services Command and Staff College Joint Services Command and Staff College (JSCSC) is a British Armed Forces academic establishment that provides training and education to experienced officers of the Royal Navy, Army, Royal Air Force, Ministry of Defence Civil Service, and offic ...
which was initially located on the same site at Bracknell but later moved to Shrivenham.
Defence Estates Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) is an operating arm of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) in the United Kingdom, which is responsible for the built and rural estate. Its chief executive is Mike Green. History The DIO was formed in 2011 in ...
disposed of the site in 2004, selling it to
English Partnerships English Partnerships (EP) was the national urban renewal, regeneration agency for England, performing a similar role on a national level to that fulfilled by regional development agency, regional development agencies on a regions of England, region ...
, a regeneration agency.


Commandants

Commandants include: * July 1945 Air Vice-Marshal R Graham * December 1945 Air Vice-Marshal A P M Sanders * 1947 Air Vice-Marshal T M Williams * 1 January 1949 Air Vice-Marshal J D I Hardman * 18 June 1951 Air Vice-Marshal A D Gillmore * 1953 Air Vice-Marshal D Macfadyen * April 1956 Air Vice-Marshal D H F Barnett * 1 August 1956 Air Vice-Marshal R Faville * 1 January 1957 Air Vice-Marshal S C Elworthy * 1 December 1959 Air Vice-Marshal M L Heath * 1 January 1962 Air Vice-Marshal D J P Lee * 1 January 1965 Air Vice-Marshal T W Piper * 1 June 1966 Air Vice-Marshal D C Stapleton * 22 April 1968 Air Vice-Marshal N M Maynard * 27 September 1970 Air Vice-Marshal M J Beetham * 2 October 1972 Air Vice-Marshal A McK S Steedman * 16 August 1975 Air Vice-Marshal K A Williamson * 23 February 1977 Air Vice-Marshal J B Curtiss * 27 February 1980 Air Vice-Marshal M Beavis * 21 April 1981 Air Vice-Marshal D G Parry-Evans * 29 January 1983 Air Vice-Marshal A G Skingsley * 29 September 1984 Air Vice-Marshal G A White * 9 February 1987 Air Vice-Marshal D T Bryant * 6 January 1989 Air Vice-Marshal A F C Hunter * 8 August 1990 Air Vice-Marshal R G Peters * 5 May 1993 Air Vice-Marshal M P Donaldson * 15 January 1996 Air Vice-Marshal M van Der Veen


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Raf Staff College, Bracknell 1945 establishments in the United Kingdom Bracknell Education in Bracknell Forest Educational institutions disestablished in 1997 Staff colleges Staff College 1997 disestablishments in England