Page 123 - The Wish Stream Year of 2022

for its implementation), the Selborne Scheme was a revolution in naval education offering boys destined to become naval officers a very modern education to include practical and theo- retical engineering. Although proving disastrous for Royal Marine Officer recruitment (see Royal Marine section below) and abandoned early by the Corps, with some modifications the scheme formed the basis of Naval officer training at Dart- mouth until 1945. One of the more contentious objectives of the scheme, which failed to materi- alise fully due to objections from some older and more conservative senior officers, was the inclu- sion of engineering and Royal Marine officers into a common entry and training system with executive officers. Both engineering and Royal Marine officers had long been denied the same status and opportunities in the Navy as execu- tive officers who had gone through Britannia. One other objective of the Scheme, although it was accepted, was the lowering of the minimum age of entry to the College to 12 (it had earlier been raised to 14 in 1896).
Royal Naval College, Osbourne
The reduction of the minimum age of entry and the resulting lengthening of the course meant that the size of the new College at Dartmouth would not be sufficient, despite the building of additional cadet accommodation there. It was decided therefore to look for an additional col- lege which could be ready before the planned opening of the new Dartmouth building in 1905. With the permission of King Edward VII, his par- ent’s former home at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight was offered to the Admiralty. The house was already being used as a convalescent home for service men, and so the stable block and a number of other buildings were hurriedly converted to become the Royal Naval College, Osbourne which opened in September 1903. This was intended for the initial entry of cadets at around 12 years old for their first two years, so it became effectively the ‘prep school’ (or junior college) for Dartmouth (the senior college). RNC Osbourne lasted until 1920 when it was closed as part of the wider post-war defence cuts, with all cadets again being educated at Dartmouth.
‘Special Entry’ scheme
With war with Germany looming, to fulfil the requirement for more naval officers, especially those who might want to become engineers, the First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill in 1913 devised the Special Entry scheme which enabled boys between seventeen and a half and
eighteen who had completed their education at a public school to join the Navy as cadets for a six-month course on a training ship, initially HMS Highflyer. This scheme seemed to run counter to the core principles of the Selborne Scheme, but it nevertheless ran concurrently with Dart- mouth entry and lasted until after the Second World War, sometimes producing more officers than Dartmouth, many of them being engineer officers.
Dartmouth between the Wars
Between the Wars, Dartmouth settled into a comfortable regime producing primarily execu- tive officers, sufficient engineer officers being produced voluntarily through Special Entry. The staff at Dartmouth were a mixture of civilian mas- ters and naval officers, providing the cadets with a mixed naval and academic education, as well as sports and many other extra-mural activities. It has been described by some at the time as Dartmouth’s ‘Golden Age’ or its ‘Halcyon Days’.
But by the early 1930s, the College was coming under scrutiny against a backdrop of economic depression and continuing disarmament. Neither a naval career nor indeed an army career was seen as a particularly attractive proposition by young men at the time, and even those who felt drawn to the Navy were increasingly attracted by the Special Entry scheme. There were also concerns about the quality of the Dartmouth cadet compared to that of the public school Special Entry cadet who, it was felt, was often more mature and imaginative, and less rigid than the Dartmouth cadet. Part of the reason was thought to be the responsibility and independ- ence given to public school boys in the sixth form which had no equivalent at Dartmouth. As a result, a radical overhaul of the Dartmouth organisation was undertaken, with the introduc- tion of a public school system of ‘houses’, five in total (Blake, Exmouth, Grenville, Hawke and St Vincent), in which cadets would stay through- out their time at the College thus mixing with cadets of different ages and seniority. Hitherto, cadets had remained rigidly in their year group. The only exception to this was a separate house (Drake) for cadets during their initial two years at the College. This innovation proved to be suc- cessful, with staff (both naval and civilian) being associated with individual houses and with inter- house sport becoming more competitive. This system was to continue until after the Second World War.
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