| The Royal Military College at Sandhurst, comprising a senior andjunior department. | Under the control of the Commander-in-Chief. |
| The Royal Military Academy at Woolwich. | |
| The Ordnance School at Carshalton, a preparatory establishment tothe Academy. | Under the control of the Clerkof the Ordnance. |
| The Department of Artillery Studies at Woolwich. | |
| The Royal Engineer Establishment at Chatham. | |
| The East India Military College at Addiscombe. | Under the Court of Directors of the East IndiaCompany. |
| The School of Musketry at Hythe. | Under the control of the Commander-in-Chief. |
| The Royal Military Asylum at Chelsea, comprising a training schoolfor army schoolmasters, and a model school for children. | Under the control of the DeputySecretary of War. |
| The Royal Hibernian School at Dublin. | |
| Garrison and regimental schools for soldiers and children. | Under the control of the Chaplain-General. |
Up to this period no systematic organization for the direction of military education had prevailed in this country; the various educational establishments were under the control of separate departments, and no single authority exercised any general supervision over them. The appointment of a Director-General of Military Education had been already advocated in Parliament by Mr. Sidney Herbert, and the institution of a special department to superintend the whole system of education for the army was one of the main features both of Colonel Lefroy’s and of all the other schemes brought under the consideration of Lord Panmure at this period.
The Commissioners appointed in 1856, after having visited the military schools of the Continent, presented their Report in January, 1857. In this Report, although their instructions had more particularly directed their attention to the training of officers for the scientific corps, they touched upon several points connected with the education of officers of the army generally. One of the changes most strongly recommended by them was the formation of a special Board of Military Education. “We consider it of the first importance,” their Report says, “that military education in this country should be regarded as a whole, and that perfect unity of system and harmony in its working should be made to prevail. This, we conceive, can only be done by bringing military education generally under the control of one head, the Secretary of State for War; and to effect this, a Board or Section of Military Education should be formed, as part of the establishment of the War Office.” The Report adds: “The creation of such a Section appears to us far more important than any other single object we can recommend.” The Commissioners also stated that after careful consideration, they recommended the combined action of a Board in preference to the undivided authority of a single individual, on the ground of the variety of knowledge and experience required for the proper treatment of educational questions.
The appointment of the Council of Military Education was the first result of the recommendations of the Commissioners. Its institution was proposed in a letter from the Commander-in-Chief to the Secretary of State for War on the 6th of April, 1857, and as originally constituted, it consisted of the Commander-in-Chief as ex officio president, a Major-General as vice-president, and two field officers as members. The appointment of the Council, although the members commenced their duties at once, was not officially gazetted until June.
The functions of the Council, however, did not in the first instance extend to a general superintendence over the whole system of military education. Almost simultaneously with their institution an Inspector-General of Army Schools was appointed under the Secretary of State for War, to whom the management of all institutions connected with the education of soldiers and children, which had previously been in the hands of the Chaplain-General, was entrusted. Nor was the supervision of the Council even over the education of officers at first general, as the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich remained under the management of the War Office (under which department it had been placed on the abolition of the office of Master-General of the Ordnance), and the examinations for admission to it were conducted by a separate Board of Examiners, under the superintendence of Canon Moseley.
The instructions issued to the Council on their first appointment directed their attention more especially to the organization of a Staff College, the revision of the system of examinations for direct appointments to the army, the amalgamation of Woolwich and Sandhurst, and the professional instruction and examination of officers after entering the service. On all these questions they submitted reports in the course of the year, and at the beginning of 1858 they commenced to conduct the examinations in connection with the Staff College and the Cadet College at Sandhurst, although these establishments were not formally put under their authority until, by a Royal Warrant of the 1st of October, 1858, the Council were appointed Visitors of the Royal Military College. The examinations of officers for direct appointments to the staff, which had been instituted in 1857, were also placed under the superintendence of the Council in 1858; but at a later period, the portion of these examinations which has more especial reference to matters of drill and regimental duty was, on the recommendation of the Council themselves, removed from their control, with the view of its being conducted by a Board of Officers appointed by the Adjutant-General.
At the beginning of the year 1858, the office of Secretary to the Council of Military Education was created, and in June of the same year an augmentation of their number took place by the addition of two new members,—one a field officer, the other a civilian, the Rev. Canon Moseley. The constitution of the Council as then fixed continues to the present day, and consists of the Commander-in-Chief as ex officio president, a vice-president, and four members, one being a civilian.
The appointment of a civilian as a member of the central Board of Military Education had been recommended by the Commissioners of 1856, on the ground of the close connection between military and civil educational questions. The decision to carry out this recommendation, simultaneously with an augmentation in the strength of the Council, appears to have been connected with the determination arrived at, to place the superintendence of the Academy at Woolwich—the competitive examinations for admission to which had hitherto been conducted by Canon Moseley—in the hands of the Council. They were formally appointed Visitors of the Academy in August, 1858, their control over the education of the officers of the army being now made almost entirely general. The powers of the Council, however, in regard to Woolwich appear, probably from the fact of their not being defined by Royal Warrant, to be theoretically somewhat less extensive than those possessed by them over Sandhurst, as the recommendation of the appointment of professors, which in the case of the latter college is formally vested in the Council, is at the Academy left to the Lieutenant-Governor.
In October, 1859, the Indian Military College at Addiscombe was placed under the supervision of the Council, and the examinations for admission to it were conducted by them until the close of the establishment in 1861.
In 1860, the superintendence of army schools, garrison libraries, recreation rooms, the Royal Military Asylum at Chelsea, and the Royal Hibernian School at Dublin, were transferred from the Secretary of State for War to the Council.