by Dan Black

First-year cadets practice drill.

It’s early and the fog is lifting from Lake Ontario. Rays of sunlight have broken through and turned portions of the old limestone dormitories into gold. Until you spot the tall young man with the short haircut, you half expect a monk to emerge from one of the buildings. The place seems that serene, but across the parade square–above the tower on the Mackenzie Building–a Canadian flag signals another day at the Royal Military College of Canada, a 125-year-old institution known for its historic location, but better known for pushing cadets to their mental and physical limits.

Situated in the city of Kingston at the junction of Lake Ontario, the St. Lawrence and Cataraqui rivers, RMC is marking its anniversary with events throughout the year. More than a thousand are expected to attend this month’s activities which will include the unveilingof a commemorative five-cent piece. Last June, Canada Post got into the act by releasing a commemorative stamp. The anniversary is especially appreciated by the thousands of men and women who have graduated over the years and enjoyed the privilege of marching out under the campus’s Memorial Arch, en route to careers as military officers.

Until recently the responsibility for educating officer cadets was shared by RMC, Royal Roads Military College in Victoria and Collège Militaire Royal de Saint-Jean in Quebec. The latter two closed in 1995, leaving RMC as the only national military college in Canada. When asked about its future, Rear-Admiral David C. Morse–the college commandant–said without doubt that the demand for RMC’s brand of education will rise, and with it the college’s responsibilities. He and many others hold that view because they know the Canadian Forces must do more to recruit and train intelligent people who can meet the high demands of operational commitments.

This point was emphasized by Governor General Adrienne Clarkson when she spoke at last May’s convocation ceremony. “You will be called upon to take your place in modern Canada and in the modern world…. You will also be called upon to lead…and a leader must stand for something. You must not only be aware of who you are. You must also be defined by what you do.”

In 1959, the Province of Ontario empowered RMC to confer degrees and honorary degrees in arts, science and engineering. Another milestone for the federally funded institution was reached in the 1970s when the college became institutionally bilingual and began offering courses in French and English. Not surprisingly, it took longer for the college to admit women, and although the transition occurred in 1980 without major problems, there were people, including staff, who snubbed their noses at it. “I can remember some staff members–some colleagues of mine–who were adamant that when they went to do some recruiting they would inform the women that RMC is a place for males,” said physics professor Napoléon Gauthier. “Thankfully those people saw the light and within a year’s time they retired. The college is doing better for it.”

Cadets come from across Canada. Last May there were approximately 900 undergraduates in the school’s Regular Officer Training Plan. There were another 200 undergraduate students in residence from the non-commissioned ranks of the Canadian Forces. There were also several hundred postgraduate students in residence and another 3,000 students spread across the country taking continuing studies extension courses.

One former student–Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield–spent a few moments last April reminiscing about his alma mater while soaring overhead in the space shuttle Endeavour–on his way to becoming the first Canadian to walk in space. “As we passed south of Peterborough, I could see the edge of the Canadian Shield and the lakes to the north,” he told Legion Magazine. “I swung my camera around to pick out Trenton and Mountainview where I first flew solo so many years ago, in an air cadet glider. Following Lake Ontario’s shore, we came up on Kingston. Carefully, steadying the camera, I squeezed the film’s last few photos at the mouth of the Cataraqui River–at RMC.”

Hadfield said it’s impossible to make the journey into space without reflecting on how you got there. He said the visual impact of seeing those familiar places, including his home town of Sarnia, Ont., made him look at his life as a whole. “I floated in wonder, intensely aware of the privilege and honour to be there…on behalf of all those who taught me. I remember standing as a cadet on the parade square, sneaking occasional hopeful looks skyward as airplanes flew over. It startled me to think that I was in a spaceship, so incredibly high above. I thought of the cadets down there, past and present, and of the teachers who have guided them through the years. And as Kingston faded from view, I put the camera away, said a silent hello and thanks, and got back to work.”

Work–lots of it–is what cadets, ex-cadets and staff speak of when asked to describe life at RMC and the challenge of living up to the college’s motto: Truth, Duty, Valour. They’ll tell you the education is built on four principles. One is academics, but not the same variety you’d find at mainstream universities. “The cadets are not asked to simply graduate with a degree,” explained Morse. “We wish to graduate individuals who are academically sound. Why? The Canadian military needs intelligent people to meet the demands of new operational environments. We don’t simply say: Please graduate in English, history or chemical engineering. We also say to them that we have special requirements for you in the undergraduate program and these are embodied in a core curriculum that seeks to ensure arts graduates have enough science, technology and mathematics to be able to function in a modern armed forces and that engineers have enough humanities–English, French, history and political science–to do the same. That’s the first pillar. The second pillar reflects the bilingual nature of the country.”

Cadets are required to follow a course of second language instruction and graduate with a level of bilingualism that will allow them to operate in command of their troops in French or English. When it comes to the physical fitness pillar, the goal is to inculcate in graduates a desire and appreciation for life-long fitness. “It’s required of all serving officers, and it’s certainly required in an operational environment. The fourth pillar is the military or leadership pillar. Nobody will graduate from here unless they can demonstrate their leadership potential. If they don’t measure up to these four pillars, they don’t get a degree….”

These standards have evolved greatly over the years, but they still reflect the college’s raison d’être first articulated in 1874 when Parliament passed an Act to create an institution to provide a complete education in all branches of military tactics, fortification and engineering.

Point Frederick, a small peninsula east of downtown Kingston, was a natural choice because of its strategic location and historic military connections. A naval depot had been built there in 1789 and during the War of 1812 it became the most important military and naval station in Upper Canada.

The college opened June 1, 1876, to a class of 18 cadets–known by name to cadets and ex-cadets as The Old Eighteen. The first class of cadets graduated in 1880 and the first ex-cadet to be killed in action fell at Tambi in West Africa in 1892. Other ex-cadets from those early days saw action in the Northwest Rebellion, the South African War, on the North-West Frontier of India and during World War I.

The first college buildings included those erected as part of the naval dockyard, including one that’s seen continuous use as a dorm. Built in 1819 to store sails and other materials from decommissioned British war ships, it’s known as the Stone Frigate or the Boat.

World War II veteran, former cadet and Legionnaire A. Britton Smith of Kingston remembers what life was like in the Stone Frigate in 1938. “We pressed our blue trousers by wetting the seam and then laying them flat under our bottom sheet. We then slept on them,” said the member of Limestone City Branch. “We always kept a glass of water handy in our rooms for doing that because we had no sinks in the stone frigate. In the morning–during the winter–the water in the glass would always be frozen.”

Smith, who was among many from the college to head overseas in 1940, remembers how tough it was at RMC. “There was an extremely rigid and layed-down class system. The seniors were God Almighty and the recruits were dirt. You had to accept that. My first roommate dropped out after about 10 days–from extreme stress. My second roommate dropped out at the end of the year. It was a very tough and demanding life….”

Gordon Beech of Ottawa graduated in the late 1960s. He served as an aerospace engineer in the Royal Canadian Air Force and is now a service officer for the Legion’s Dominion Command in Ottawa. “While the Vietnam War was raging and there were love-ins on civilian college campuses, I was an officer in the Canadian Services College system, entering Royal Roads in 1964 and graduating from RMC in 1968, but as far as I can tell it has never seen a sit-in or a love-in. Discipline and drill were the military counterparts.”

Beech said reveille always came as a shock. “Ten seconds after the PA system clicked on, recruits flashed out of bed, housecoats on, soap in hand, towel over left arm and stood to attention in the hallway, ready for shower parade. The shower parade itself took 90 seconds, but not everyone made it in time, so we did it over and over until we got good at it.”

Cadets had three minutes to make their bed and prepare for room inspection. “You had to be prepared for all eventualities because after a quick room inspection, it would be left turn, march down the hall, double down the stairs, run to the square for morning inspection and parade. If there was a laggard, it might be back to the room, back to the shower, or even back to bed for practice in getting up–until we got it right.”

It was seldom that these morning rituals did not result in punishment. “A charge warranted extra duties and complete misery,” said Beech. “Lesser punishment took the form of circles, each one-third of a mile, that had to be run in full uniform immediately after lunch, after supper or during break…. Cadets were subject to on-the-spot inspection of dress, manners or given a test of college knowledge. For example, you’d be asked to name the Old Eighteen or an ancient commandant’s horse….”

Recruits fresh out of high school find the pace gruelling, although most are quick to say it was good for them. “Puke flowed on the sports field from physical exertion and even on the breakfast table from psychological stress,” added Beech. “However, at the end of six weeks of being shouted at around the clock, conditioning in physical training classes, sports every day, running everywhere, we ran the four-and-a-half-mile cross-country course without stopping and hardly puffing.”

The most memorable event for many is the two-hour obstacle course that features various hazards designed by second-year cadets to test the mettle of recruits. Survive it and you pass from recruit to full-fledged member of the cadet body. For many ex-cadets, the obstacle course is the one thing that’s still fresh in their minds.

Former student Richard Marsden is head of RMC’s physics department, and he’s very impressed with the students he teaches. “I think the cadets and the programs are pretty much the same as they were when I was a student. The biggest change within the cadet wing has been the introduction of women…. I think it was a very positive development–I am 100 per cent sure of that. The quarters here were a bit of a zoo with only males. The female cadets probably offer a real stabilizing influence….”

He said the cadets are “quite a bit of a dream to teach” and don’t present the same discipline problems experienced at civilian universities. “I’ve had the odd discipline problem, but nothing serious. They’re not all Einsteins, but they are pretty intelligent and it’s a good teaching environment.”

Physics professor Gauthier has been teaching at RMC since 1976. He remembers what a huge shift it was for him to go from a civilian environment to a military one, and noted he was impressed by the level of discipline. “We teach them discipline. We teach them leadership. They know about history, they know about geography and they know about economics. They have a second language–all sorts of things that an officer needs to be in charge of people.”

He said the college is fortunate to have good staffing levels and good resources for undergraduate programs. “I’ve had professors from the University of Toronto and from the University of British Columbia come here and rave about the facilities and equipment. Right now we have about 200 staff and close to 900 undergraduate students.”

Women comprise about 20 per cent of students. Last May, graduating cadet Lesley Glanville, 23, from Providence Bay, Ont., said her four years have gone by faster than she could have imagined. “I have memories from my first year that seem like they’re from yesterday. At RMC you develop stronger friendships because you have to rely on each other on a daily basis.”

What’s next for Glanville? “I am going to be an infantry officer with the Royal Canadian Regiment in Petawawa and so my goal is to lead the troops as best I can,” she replied. “I will finish training this summer and be with 1 RCR (Royal Canadian Regiment) in September.”

Cadet Christopher Horner, 22, of Collingwood, Ont., will graduate next year. He knew absolutely nothing about the military before entering RMC. “On a straight academic level I suppose RMC would be on a par with any of the top universities in Canada, but we are adding on things like becoming bilingual, learning to have self-discipline, self-motivation–gaining valuable leadership skills.”

Horner believes 90 to 95 per cent of Canadian youth don’t know RMC exists. “The reason I say that is because I know people from Queen’s University, which is a short walk away–that don’t know it exists. The farther away you get from Kingston–and the military concept that’s portrayed here–the college becomes less known.”

Commandant Morse believes the college could do more to promote itself outside of military circles. “We have a lot to be proud of and the graduates are making a tremendous contribution to Canadian society. We need to tell this story again and again. We need to make sure the graduates who have reached levels of prestige are recognized.”

Many graduates from RMC, Royal Roads and Collège Militaire Royal de Saint-Jean have gone on to successful business careers after serving in the military. The earliest opportunity for most ex-cadets to leave the military is five years after graduation–seven if you’re a pilot. One ex-cadet, Robert E. Brown went on to become president of Bombardier Aerospace of Montreal. Another grad–Michael Potter–became CEO of Cognos Inc. Not surprisingly, ex-cadets have landed key jobs in the defence industry, including a former chief of defence staff, Paul Manson, who became president of Montreal-based Paramax Systems Canada. The grads make up a powerful and very loyal network.

Astronaut Chris Hadfield said students at RMC see themselves as part of a long continuous string of people who have gone before. “You feel that every day. It is by no means perfect. It is subject to the vagaries and problems of the times, but it ends up providing an unparalleled Canadian education. It was pivotal in allowing me to become an astronaut. I think you’d be hard pressed to do better than RMC.”

Gordon Beech agrees. “Graduating from RMC was a unique experience that we probably didn’t appreciate at the time. We were on top of the world with a degree and a commission and a new career in the Canadian Forces. With maturity, one gets to realize that we also got to know well Canadians from all across the country with different backgrounds, qualifications and interests.”

He said RMC cadets endured together, studied together, lived together, played together, and in doing so developed a strong sense of loyalty and camaraderie. However, he says with time and the exigencies of life, one loses contact with classmates. “Sometimes this happens quite quickly. At the end of first year we lost about one-third of the recruits that had entered the college. More left prior to graduation and some died on duty shortly after graduation. Some served in the Forces and went on to other things. Out of my graduating class, probably only half continued to a career retirement after 35 years, but their skills, talents and character were not lost to Canada.”

One way ex-cadets stay in touch is through the Royal Military Colleges Club founded in 1884. It has 16 branches and approximately 4,200 paid up members. A valuable source of funding for the college is the RMC Club Foundation. It’s raised millions of dollars since it was established in the 1970s and one of its major projects this year is the renovation of the area around the Memorial Arch.