topography, engineering and law. In addition, the following
conditions must be complied with: (1) University candidates are
required to be members of the Senior Division of the Officers
Training Corps (see United Kingdom: Army) should there be a
unit of that corps at the university to which they belong. They
are further required to be attached for six weeks to a Regular unit
during their residence at the university. If there is no Officers
Training Corps at his university, the candidate is attached to a
Regular unit for twelve weeks (consecutively or in two stages).
The final examination in military subjects is competitive. (2) Cadets
of the Royal Military College are instructed in the following
additional subjects: sanitation, French or German (or both),
riding and horse management, musketry, physical training, drill
and signalling. Hindustani may be taken instead of French or
German. (3) Cadets of the Royal Military Academy are instructed
in the same subjects as the cadets at the Royal Military College,
with the addition of artillery, advanced mathematics, chemistry,
light, heat, electricity and workshop practice. Cadets who pass
highest in the final examination for commissions are as a rule
appointed to the Royal Engineers, the remainder to the Royal
Artillery. (4) Officers of the Special Reserve, Territorial Force and
certain other forces must have completed a continuous period of
attachment of twelve months to a Regular unit of Cavalry, Artillery,
Engineers or Infantry, and have served and been trained for at least
one year in the force to which they belong, before presenting themselves
at the competitive examination in military subjects. The
period of attachment to Regular units may be reduced if certain
certificates are obtained. Candidates for commissions in the artillery
must belong to the artillery branches of the above forces and have a
certificate in riding and mathematics. They are not eligible for the
Royal Engineers. (5) The conditions for Officers of the Colonial
Military Forces are similar to those for the Special Reserve, &c.,
except that only two months' attachment to a Regular unit, or unit
of the Permanent Colonial Forces, is required. (6) Commissions
are also given to Cadets of the Royal Military College, Kingston,
Canada; the training of that establishment being similar to that
at the Royal Military College and the Royal Military Academy.
Candidates for commissions in the Royal Army Medical Corps and Army Veterinary Corps are not examined in military subjects, but must pass in the appropriate technical subjects; those for the Royal Army Medical Corps passing two written and two oral examinations, one each in medicine and surgery; those for the Army Veterinary Corps passing a written and an oral examination in veterinary medicine, surgery and hygiene. Candidates for the Royal Army Medical Corps have further to proceed to the Royal Army Medical College for instruction in recruiting duties, hygiene, pathology, tropical medicine, military surgery and military medical administration.
Royal Engineers attend the School of Military Engineering at Chatham, where long and elaborate courses of instruction are given in all subjects appertaining to the work of the corps, including practical work in the field and in fortresses.
II. The training which succeeds the appointment to a commission consists partly of more detailed instruction in the subjects already learned, partly of the practical application of those subjects, and partly of more advanced instruction with its practical application.
On first joining his unit the young officer is put through a course of preliminary drills, lasting, as a rule, for from three months (infantry) to six months (cavalry), though the time depends upon the individual officer's rate of progress. During this period, and for some considerable time afterwards, officers are instructed in “regimental duties,” consisting of the interior economy of a regiment, such as financial accounts, stores, correspondence, the minor points of military law in their actual working, customs of the service, the management of regimental institutes, &c., with, in the case of the mounted branches, equitation and the care and management of horses. They are required to attend a number of courts-martial, as supernumerary members, before being permitted to attend one in the effective and official capacities of member or prosecutor, although from a legal point of view their qualification depends simply upon their rank and length of service. A course of musketry, theoretical and practical, is then gone through. Field training begins with lectures on the various evolutions of the squadron, battery or company, followed by actual practice in the field, arranged by the commanders of squadrons, batteries or companies.
Before promotion from the rank of second-lieutenant to lieutenant, an examination must be passed in “Regimental Duties” (practical, oral and written) and “Drill and Field Training” (practical only). The officer is then taken in hand by the commanding officer of his regiment, battalion or brigade. He is frequently examined in the subjects in which he has already been instructed, and is practically taught the more advanced stages of topography, engineering, tactics, law and organization. The next stage consists of regimental drills, which include every kind of practical work in the field which can be done by a unit under the command of a lieutenant-colonel. After this come brigade, division and army manoeuvres. Officers have to pass examinations in military subjects for promotion until they attain the rank of major. The chief of these subjects are tactics, military topography, military engineering, military law, administration and military history. For majors, before promotion to lieutenant-colonel, an examination in “Tactical Fitness for Command” has to be passed. This examination is a test of ability in commanding the “three arms” in the field; a course of attachment to the two arms to which the officer does not belong being a necessary preliminary.
Army Service Corps.—The officers of this corps have usually served for at least one year in the cavalry, infantry or Royal Marines, though commissions are also given to cadets of the Royal Military College. On joining, the officer first spends nine months on probation, during which he attends lectures and practical demonstrations in the following subjects: military administration and organization generally; and as regards Army Service Corps work, in detail; organization of the Field Army and Lines of Communication; war organization and duties of the A.S.C.; registry and care of correspondence; contracts; special purchases; precautions in receiving supplies, and care and issue of same; accounts, forms, vouchers and office work in general and in detail; barrack duties (including all points relating to coal, wood, turf, candles, lamps, gas, water, &c). A thorough and detailed description of all kinds of forage, breadstuffs, meat, groceries and other field supplies is given. The lectures and demonstrations in transport include, beside mounted and dismounted drill, wagon drill; carriages; embarkation and disembarkation of men and animals; entraining and detraining; harness and saddlery; transport by rail and sea, with the office work involved. This course of instruction is given at the Army Service Corps Training Establishment at Aldershot.
A satisfactory examination having been passed, the officer is permanently taken into the corps. Before promotion to captain he is examined in accounts, correspondence and contracts; judging cattle and supplies; duties of an A.S.C. officer in charge of a sub-district; interior economy of a company; military vehicles and pack animals; embarkation, disembarkation and duties on board ship; convoys; duties of brigade supply and transport officer in war. Captains, before promotion to major, are examined in lines of communication of an army in war; method of obtaining supplies and transport in war, and formation and working of depots; organization of transport in war; schemes of supply and transport for troops operating from a fixed base; duties of a staff-officer administering supply, transport and barrack duties at home. These are in addition to general military subjects.
Royal Army Medical Corps.—On completion of the course of instruction at the Royal Army Medical College, lieutenants on probation proceed to the R.A.M.C. School of Instruction at Aldershot for a two months' course in the technical duties of the corps, and at the end of the course are examined in the subjects taught. This passed, their commissions are confirmed. After eighteen months service, officers are examined in squad, company and corps drills and exercises; the Geneva Convention; the administration, organization and equipment of the army in its relation to the medical services; duties of wardmasters and stewards in military hospitals and returns, accounts and requisitions connected therewith; duties of executive medical officers; military law. These successful candidates are then eligible for promotion to captain. Before promotion to major the following examination must be passed, after a course of study under such arrangements as the director-general of the Army Medical Service may determine: (1) medicine, (2) surgery, (3) hygiene, (4) bacteriology, (5) one out of seven special subjects named, and (6) military law. The examination for promotion from major to lieutenant-colonel embraces army medical organization in peace and war; sanitation of towns, camps, transports, &c.; epidemiology and the management of epidemics; medical history of important campaigns; the Army Medical Service of the more important powers; the laws and customs of war, so far as they relate to the sick and wounded; and a tactical problem in field medical administration. Officers who pass these examinations with distinction are eligible for accelerated promotion.
Army Ordnance Department.—An officer of this department must have had at least four years' service in other branches of the army and must have passed for the rank of captain. They are then eligible to present themselves at an elementary examination in mathematics, after passing which they attend a one year’s course at the Ordnance College, Woolwich. The course comprises the following: (a) Gunnery (including principles of gun construction and practical optics); (b) Materiel, guns, carriages, machine guns, small arms and ammunition of all descriptions; (c) Army Ordnance Duties (functions of the corps; supply, receipt and issue of stores, &c.); (d) Machinery; (e) Chemistry and Metallurgy; (f) Electricity. An advanced course follows in which officers take up any two of the subjects of applied mathematics, chemistry and electricity, combined with either small arms, optics or mechanical design. They are then appointed to the department and hold their appointments for four years, with a possible extension of an additional three years.
Army Veterinary Corps.—A candidate on appointment as veterinary officer, on joining at Aldershot, undergoes a course of special training at the Army Veterinary School. The course lasts one year, and consists of (a) hygiene; conformation of the foot and shoeing, conformation, points, colours, markings; stable construction and management; management of horses in the open and of large bodies of sick; saddles and sore backs; collars and sore shoulders; bits and bitting; transport by sea and rail; mules, donkeys, camels
