Page 132 - The Wish Stream Year of 2022 CREST

vice which ended in 1960. Thereafter, until its closure in 1972, all short service officer training was carried out at Mons until that was trans- ferred to Sandhurst. Since 1984, female offic- ers have also been trained at Sandhurst. Before that date, women had their own separate officer training school - the Women’s Royal Army Corps College initially at Frimley Park, Camberley and then at Bagshot. In 1992, a new Commission- ing Course finally unified the training of male and female cadets.
Sandhurst today
Today, the Academy’s stated aim is to be ‘The national centre of excellence for leadership’.
All British Army officers, including late entry offic- ers who were previously Warrant Officers, as well as many from elsewhere in the world, are trained at Sandhurst. On average around 13 percent of British cadets are female and around 15 percent of all cadets come from overseas. Although there have been ‘experiments’ over the years with the length of the Commissioning Course, the current course length is just a year, with three intakes of around 250 cadets each, commencing in Janu- ary, May and September each year. The aver- age total population of officer cadets at Sand- hurst is therefore currently around 750. Around eighty percent of cadets already have a degree, although that is not a requirement for admis- sion. Selection takes place at the Army Officers Selection Board (AOSB) held at Westbury, near Warminster, Wiltshire.
The Academy straddles the counties of Berk- shire and Surrey; the border marked by a small stream known as the Wish Stream, after which the Academy journal is named. The Academy is partly situated on the edge of the village of College Town, Sandhurst and partly in the outer region of Camberley town. The Commandant of RMA Sandhurst is a Major General.
The Royal Military College opened its doors in 1802 (moving to Sandhurst in 1812), coinciden- tally the same year as Saint-Cyr in France and West Point in the USA. Amongst the current Military Academies in Europe, only På Militärhög- skolan Karlberg in Sweden, founded 1792, is older.
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force College Cranwell
Early years of Cranwell Station
From the inception of the Royal Fly-
ing Corps (RFC) in 1912, military flying training had been carried out at the RFC’s Central Flying School at Upavon in Wiltshire. When the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) was formed in July 1914, the facilities at Upavon were considered inadequate and indeed inappropriate for both the Army and the Navy, forcing the Admiralty to seek its own flying training facility. Cranwell in Lincolnshire was chosen as it was close to other east coast air stations and, being in the middle of nowhere, was considered free of extra cur- ricula distractions. Although the small village of Cranwell is only a mile from the chosen site of the new air station (Cranwell Lodge Farm which was commandeered by the Admiralty in Novem- ber 1915 for that purpose), the nearest sizeable habitation is the market town of Sleaford, some six miles away.
Approximately half of the aircraft and equip- ment from Upavon were relocated to Cranwell, and early personnel at Cranwell were borne on the books of a HMS Daedalus, a Medway hulk renamed for that purpose, but the station was soon named Royal Naval Air Station Cranwell. Cranwell Lodge Farmhouse became the Com- mandant’s accommodation and also the offic- ers’ mess, whilst men were accommodated in farm cottages and outbuildings. Accommoda- tion and facilities quickly increased and by April 1916 Cranwell had become the RNAS Central Training Establishment. By 1917, RNAS Cran- well was the Royal Navy’s nerve centre for aviation training, able to train pilots, observers, wireless operators, mechanics and engineers. In addition to conventional aircraft, it also had a Lighter-Than-Air (airships) section. Flying training was relentless and sadly there were 49 fatalities caused by flying accidents at Cranwell during the First World War (with ten killed in seven days in July 1918), many of the casualties being bur- ied in the churchyard of the Parish Church of St Andrew at Cranwell village. Although RAF Cran- well today has three chapels, none has a burial ground so the churchyard of St Andrew’s Parish Church (not to be confused with the St Andrew’s Chapel at the RAF College) continues to be used as an RAF burial ground with some 200 RAF graves, mostly service (maintained either by the
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