The first official suggestion, with the object of remedying the deficiency of professional knowledge among the officers of the army, was made by Mr. Sidney Herbert, when Secretary at War, in 1854. The outline of the plan proposed by him at this time was sketched out in a letter addressed to Lord Hardinge, then Commander-in-Chief, and its details were subsequently more fully explained in speeches in the House of Commons. The scheme contemplated a general reorganization of the system of military education,—the improvement of the examinations instituted by the Duke of Wellington for admission to the army and for promotion,—the conversion of the Senior Department at Sandhurst into a special school for the staff,—and the introduction of a system of professional instruction for officers after entering the service. With the view of carrying out the latter part of the scheme, it was proposed, in 1854, to appoint garrison instructors at certain large stations both at home and in the colonies. It was not intended to make attendance at the instruction thus given compulsory, but a stringent examination in the subjects which entered into the course was to be a necessary condition of promotion to the ranks of lieutenant and captain respectively.
The scheme of garrison instruction proposed by Mr. Sidney Herbert met with the approval of Lord Hardinge, and obtained the sanction of the Treasury. A sum of 2,000l., for the purpose of making a commencement in carrying it out, was inserted in the estimates for 1854-5, and the plan, as explained by Mr. Herbert in moving the army estimates, met with the entire approval of the House of Commons.
The outbreak of the Crimean War, however, in the first instance, interfered with the practical realization of the scheme, although it appears that some of the instructors had been actually selected for their posts, and that it was intended to send them out to the Crimea to acquire a practical acquaintance with such of the minor operations of war as would fall within the intended course of instruction. This latter intention was not carried out, and after the resignation of Mr. Sidney Herbert, which took place in the beginning of 1855, no further steps appear to have been taken in the matter. At the same time money continued to be voted for the purpose of carrying out the scheme (although no application of the funds was made), until the general reduction in the estimates which took place on the conclusion of peace in 1856; it appears also, from statements made by the Under Secretary at War, in the House of Commons, that the Government had never abandoned the idea of adopting some measure for the professional instruction of officers.
In the debates in both Houses of Parliament, during the Crimean War, numerous discussions took place on the subject of military education; the failure of the existing examinations for promotion, the lax mode in which they were carried out, the want of acquaintance with many of the mere rudiments of military science displayed by the majority of officers, and the necessity of supplying them with some means of instruction in the practical duties devolving upon them on active service, formed frequent subjects of remark. On the 5th of June, 1856, after the termination of the war, Mr. Sidney Herbert, then a private member, again brought his proposal for the appointment of garrison instructors before the notice of the House of Commons, in connection with his more general scheme for the improvement of the education of officers; but, although the proposal again met with the approval of nearly every speaker who took part in the discussion, the Government declined to pledge themselves to the adoption of the scheme in its details, as the question of the reorganization of the whole system of military education was then under consideration.
During the latter part of the year 1856, as has been elsewhere stated, the attention of the military authorities was seriously directed to the question of improving the education of the army. Nearly all the plans submitted to Lord Panmure with this object included, as an essential feature, the adoption of some means of professional instruction for officers after entering the service; and the machinery suggested was, in almost every case, based in its general principles on Mr. Sidney Herbert’s original proposal for the establishment of garrison instructors. The Commissioners appointed in the same year to visit the military schools of the continent, while their inquiries were chiefly confined to the improvement of the education of the scientific corps, recommended in their report that young officers of all branches of the service should, after entering the army, go through some course of professional study; at the same time they suggested no machinery for carrying their recommendation into effect. The military witnesses examined, during the years 1856 and 1857, before the Royal Commission on the Purchase System, very generally concurred in the opinion that higher professional acquirements should be demanded from officers, and that means of instruction should be afforded to them; and the Commissioners, in their Report, endorsed this view in the following terms: “Nor can it be fairly said that the purchase system is the obstacle to introducing a better system of military education. A stricter examination before granting the first commission, an improved training afterward, and a further examination on promotion from ensign to lieutenant, are measures perfectly compatible with the system of purchase.”
The system of garrison instruction suggested by Mr. Sidney Herbert appears to have found general favor at this period. The instructions issued to the Council of Military Education, on their appointment in 1857, directed them, in connection with the subject of the professional examination of officers up to the rank of captain, to consider the question “of the establishment of instructors at the large stations.” The plan proposed by the Council, in 1857, did not contemplate the general appointment of either garrison or regimental instructors; its main feature was the establishment of officers’ schools at depot battalion stations, through which all young officers, who were in the first instance to receive provisional commissions, should pass before joining their regiments and being permanently commissioned. This recommendation was supplemented by one for the partial establishment of district instructors at stations where classes of ten officers could be formed, for the more advanced instruction of those who had been some years in the service.
The great demand for officers occasioned by the Indian mutiny, combined with practical objections which were made to the Council’s scheme, prevented their proposals from being carried into effect. The only immediate result of their recommendations was the establishment, in 1857, of a class at Aldershot for the instruction of officers quartered at the camp in military sketching. A full account of this institution, which has since been considerably developed, and is now called the Survey Class, will be found further on.
At a subsequent period the attention of the Council appears to have been directed more to the question of securing the professional competence of officers by a special military education before entering the service, than by compulsory instruction at a later period. The proposal, originally made in 1858, for requiring all candidates for commissions in the line to pass through Sandhurst, has been already described in connection with the Royal Military College. The Council have, however, never ceased to urge the expediency of providing officers, after they have entered the service, with facilities for instruction in the higher branches of military science; and in their last General Report they recommended the establishment of institutions similar to the Aldershot Survey Class at other large stations.
Although no general machinery has been introduced for affording instruction to officers of the cavalry and infantry after entering the service, various steps have, from time to time, been taken with the object of extending their professional knowledge to subjects beyond the mere routine duties of their own arms. In January, 1859, commanding officers were directed to require from the officers of their regiments reports and, if possible, sketches of the roads traversed when route marching in winter; and later in the same year an order was issued that officers of infantry should, whenever practicable, be instructed in great gun drill. In the present year a system of instruction in military signalling has been introduced at the School of Engineering at Chatham, to which detachments of officers are periodically sent. In addition to the recommendations of the present Royal Commission for the introduction of a system of garrison and regimental instruction, the Royal Commission on Courts-martial, in their recent Report, recommended that more attention should be paid to the education of officers in military law, and that stricter examinations in the subject should be enforced.
The necessity of an improvement in the professional acquirements of officers appears to have been almost universally recognized from the time when Mr. Sidney Herbert brought the subject to public notice in 1854. Various opinions, however, have been entertained as to the means by which the desired object could best be effected.