Page 120 - The Wish Stream Year of 2022

A Brief History of the Current Officer Training Establishments (and their Predecessors) for the UK Armed Forces
The current officer training establishments for the Armed Forces in the UK, all similarly equivalent, are:
• The Britannia Royal Naval College Dartmouth
• The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst
• The Royal Air Force College Cranwell
Royal Marines Officer training is carried out at The Commando Training Centre Royal Marines (CTCRM) at Lympstone, Devon, the only place in the Services where both officers and other ranks are trained.
None of the four UK training establishments are universities, unlike some other foreign military academies such as the Unites States Military Academy West Point in the USA and École Spé- ciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr in France, from which cadets graduate with a full degree as well as a commission in the Armed Forces of their coun- try. UK prospective officers are in the main grad- uates before entry, although that is not a require- ment of entry. All four of the establishments also offer ‘A level’ (or equivalent) entry from age 18 to prospective officers. Unlike in earlier times (pre–World War II), no fees are paid for tuition, uniform, etc. but instead cadets receive sala- ries whilst undergoing training. These currently (2022) are between £28K and £30K depending on the Service.
The Royal Marines also differ from the other Ser- vices in that officers under initial training are not
cadets, but Probationary Second Lieutenants and are known as ‘Young Officers’ (YOs).
Royal Navy
Britannia Royal Naval College Dartmouth
Early Naval commissioning routes
Until the end of the 17th century, prospective naval officers usually entered the service as boys (often as young as twelve) by private arrange- ments between individual ships’ Captains and their parents. This was known as the ‘Cap- tain’s Servant Entry.’ The Admiralty had no con- trol over this arrangement. But Samuel Pepys, whilst Secretary to the Admiralty (1673 – 1679), introduced another scheme where ‘young gentlemen’ were sponsored by the Admiralty when sent to sea as trainee officers, known as ‘Volunteers-per-Order’. For both types of entry, ‘Volunteers’ would generally serve a minimum of three years before being eligible for promotion to Midshipman, and eventually hope to take and pass the Lieutenant’s exam. Further promotion was entirely on merit. The Royal Navy never had a system of commission purchase for entry and subsequent promotion as the Army did (until it was abolished in 1871).
In 1733 the Admiralty opened a Naval Academy in Portsmouth Dockyard for ‘the better educa- tion and training’ of these ‘Volunteers’. This sys- tem ran in addition to the private arrangement between Captains and parents sending their
118 HISTORICAL