Page 130 - The Wish Stream Year of 2022

Creating Sandhurst
James Wyatt, a well-known architect coming towards the end of his career, was appointed to design the new College. The design was slightly modified later by John Sanders, a barracks architect for the government. Alexander Cope- land, a young entrepreneurial building contrac- tor was appointed to build the College. Build- ing was delayed for several years due both to the slow release of funds by a Treasury already short of money due to the prolonged war with the French, and also to residual opposition to the project by some of the powerful Establishment.
The new building at Sandhurst eventually opened in 1812 and the cadets transferred there from Marlow. Queen Charlotte and the Duke of York both attended the opening ceremonies. After 1815 (the eventual defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo), its fortunes diminished due to lack of government funding in time of peace, but picked up again later in the 19th century as a result of the Crimea War (1853-1856), the Indian Mutiny (1857-1858) and the Boer War (1899-1902) when more officers were required as the Army expanded again. Cadet accommodation in the original building was greatly expanded. In 1870, the purchase of a commission system was abolished, and all officer cadets for the Army were thereafter trained at either Sandhurst or Woolwich.
One significant turning point at Sandhurst dur- ing that period came when cadets destined as Officers in the new British Indian Army, formed after the India Mutiny when British direct rule was established after the abolition of the East India Company, were thereafter trained at Sandhurst, alongside cadets destined for the British Army, after the closure of the Company’s Addiscombe Military Seminary in 1861. British Indian Army officers did not purchase their commissions.
Both World Wars obviously kept Sandhurst (and Woolwich) busy, and cadet numbers therefore remained at record highs during the first half
of the 20th century. An additional large building (now known as New College) for cadet accom- modation was completed in 1908. In 1947, RMA Woolwich was closed and the training of Artillery and Engineer officers transferred to Sandhurst, which was renamed the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. Thereafter, the fortunes of the new RMA remained undiminished, and Sandhurst continues to this day to maintain a worldwide reputation for officer and leadership training.
As with the RMA Woolwich, the RMC Sandhurst closed in 1939 at the outbreak of the Second World War and became an Officer Cadet Train- ing Unit (OCTU) for wartime commissions. Con- sideration of the merger of the two institutions had taken place for some time since the 1920s, and it was only the threat of war in the late 1930s that delayed it. But after World War II, the merger finally happened with the new Royal Mili- tary Academy Sandhurst opening in 1947. On 15 August that year, Indian Independence had taken place together with the Partition to create the two newly-independent states of India and Pakistan. So clearly Sandhurst’s role in training cadets for the Indian Army had ended, with both India and Pakistan setting up their own military officer training institutions.
Other officer training establishments
Post-war Army officer training was not immedi- ately confined to Sandhurst. There were three additional establishments providing commis- sions in the British Army. Eaton Hall in Cheshire was the National Service Officer Cadet School from 1946 until 1958. It had previously been used for three years from 1943 until 1946 to train officers for the Royal Navy when the Britan- nia Royal Naval College Dartmouth was bombed in 1943. In 1947, the Mons Officer Cadet Train- ing Unit in Aldershot was opened as an OCTU for short service commissions and National Service officer cadets of the technical arms. In 1958 Mons took on all National Service officer training for the final two years of National Ser-
128 HISTORICAL