RMA

From The Royal Archive

1741-1939

This was the older and more senior of the two establishments from which the present RMAS was formed. It was set up in 1741, near the Royal Artillery Depot at Woolwich, with the aim of producing, in the words of its first charter, "good officers of Artillery and perfect Engineers". The Corps of Royal Engineers, originally an all-officer corps, was not formally separated from the Royal Regiment of Artillery until 1787. Both remained under the control of the Board of Ordnance until 1856, and were collectively referred to as the Ordnance Corps. The RMA provided the high level of scientific education required by these two corps, while at the same time ensuring that their officers had the same level of military training as those serving in the Line.

Until 1870, most cavalry and infantry officers obtained their first commissions and subsequent promotion under the purchase system, for which no formal military education was required. After the establishment of the RMA, all officers of artillery and engineers had to attend the academy as gentleman cadets and were only granted their commission after completing the course. On passing out, they were placed in order of merit. Promotion in the ordnance corps was by seniority, not by purchase. This was a great incentive to study. A difference of one or two places in the final order of merit at the RMA could result in many years difference in later promotion, as the career pyramid narrowed in the higher ranks. An immediate effect was in limiting a gentleman cadet's choice of arm. When there were more candidates for the Royal Engineers (which formerly offered better pay and wider prospects of employment than the Royal Artillery) than there were vacancies, the places were offered to cadets highest in order of merit.

After 1920, when the Royal Corps of Signals was formed as a corps separate from the Royal Engineers, it drew its regular officers from cadets trained at the RMA. Between 1922 and 1939, up to half of the officers of the Royal Tank Corps were also drawn from the RMA. In 1936, it was decided that the RMA should be amalgamated with the Royal Military College at Sandhurst. Before this decision was put into effect, both establishments closed on mobilisation in September 1939, as, in the light of experience during the First World War, no regular commissions were to be granted in time of major war. The senior cadets of both establishments were commissioned at once. The juniors were called up into the Territorial Army as private soldiers. They were then dispersed to various Officer Cadet Training Units, according to the arm or branch for which they were intended. When the post-war RMAS was set up, many items, including the archives, pictures, silver and statues were brought to Sandhurst from Woolwich. The new Science block (now the home of the RMAS Academic faculty) was named the Faraday Hall, in honour of Sir Michael Faraday, one of the many distinguished scientists who taught at the RMA.

Two expressions from the old RMA passed into the language. "Talking Shop", meaning "to discuss subjects not understood by others", derives from the RMA being commonly known as "The Shop", as its first building was a converted workshop in Woolwich Arsenal. "Snooker", the table-top game, was invented by a former cadet of the RMA, where the members of the junior intake were known as "snookers", from a corruption of "les neux" (the new guys).