Since this period open competitive examinations have been held regularly every six months for admission to the Academy; and though various modifications in their details have been made, their general character remains little altered. The limits of age for candidates, originally placed at 17 to 20, were, however, in 1862, reduced to 16 to 19, at which they are at present fixed.
The examinations for admission to the Academy, like those which had previously been held for provisional commissions and for appointments to the practical class, were at first conducted by Canon Moseley and a special Board of Examiners appointed by the Secretary of State for War, with whom the general management of the Academy, after the abolition of the office of Master-General of the Ordnance, remained. In 1858, however, the superintendence of the system of instruction at Woolwich was transferred to the Council of Military Education, who, since July, 1859, have conducted the examinations.
Although the principle of open competition for appointments in the scientific corps was first recognized in 1855, and in 1857 was extended generally to admission to the ordinary course of instruction at the Academy, yet the system of competitive examination did not become the sole and universal means of admission to Woolwich until the year 1861. Time was required to clear off the vested interests of candidates who had been placed on the old nomination list of the Master-General of the Ordnance; of youths who had been admitted to the preparatory school at Carshalton; of cadets who, at the time of the proposed amalgamation of Sandhurst and Woolwich, had obtained admission to the former institution on the understanding that they would have the opportunity of obtaining commissions in the Artillery and Engineers; and, lastly, of cadets at the Indian Military College at Addiscombe, who, on the abolition of the local Indian army, were transferred to Woolwich before receiving commissions in the Royal Artillery and Royal Engineers.
Out of 3,085 admission examinations in eleven years, from 1858 to 1868, more than one-half (2,136) failed. Of those who entered after this trial, in the same length of time, only three failed to pass the final examination.
STAFF OF GOVERNMENT AND INSTRUCTION.
President.—Duke of Cambridge, K.G.
Governor.—Major General J. L. A. Simmons, K.C.B.
Secretary and Treasurer.—Bt. Major E. J. Bruce, R.Art.
Professor of Mathematics.—M. W. Crofton, B.A., and five masters.
Professor of Fortification.—Lt. Col. J. J. Wilson.