CHOOSING ARMY OFFICERS

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27097, 21 July 1953, Page 11

CHOOSING ARMY OFFICERS

RADICAL CHANGE IN BRITISH METHODS

SELECTION FROM WIDER FIELD LONDON. The fighting efficiency of any army depends above all else on the quality of the men who lead it—the officers. Field-Marshal Sir William Slim, who until recently was professional head of the British army, used to say: “There are no good regiments and no bad regiments; there are only good and bad officers.” Since the end of the Second World War. the structure of the British army has undergone radical changes. The old regular army has given place to a much greater active army, about half regulars and half National Service men. To meet the increased demand for officers, National Service commissions are now granted. In addition there are big numbers of short service officers on contracts from two years and upwards; arrangements have recently been made to enable some of these officers to serve on to a pensionable age. As for the long service regular officers, who provide the hard core of professional leadership, they are being chosen from a wider field than formerly. Their pay and allowances have been raised, and it is no longer necessary for them to have private means. It is true that many of them are still educated at public schools, but the army welcomes, and does its utmost to encourage, aspirants from grammar and secondary schools. It is worth remembering that FieldMarshal Slim himself was a grammar school boy; so was the present Chief of the Imperial General Staff, General Sir John Harding. But there has not been any lowering of standards in regard to character and intelligence. On the contrary, because of its growing complexity and the ever-increasing mechanization of its equipment, the army has had to raise its standards. The average standard of regular officers is higher than it was before the war. Commissioning Methods

Some regular officers are commissioned from universities, but most graduate through the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, on the borders of Berkshire and Surrey. There are two main methods of entry—the school and from ranks of the army. The schoolboy candidate starts at the age of 18 or thereabouts by taking the entrance examination set by the Civil Service Commissioners—a purely academic test. If he passes, he appears before a regular commissions board, composed of senior army officers and presided over by a major-general. Its business is to assess the boys character and general ability, particularly his actual or potential powers of leadership. The whole process—including the medical examination, interviews, written test, and indoor and outdoor group problems—takes three and a half days. The successful candidate then starts his military career at the regimental depot, where he does ten weeks basic training, thus gaining an insight into the life in the ranks, before entering Sandhurst. Training a cadet at Sandhurst is an expensive business. In the old days the cost'was borne by the parents. Now the army foots the bill and pays the cadet throughout his time at the academy. The course lasts 18 months and is designed to give a general education with a military bias. On passing out, the cadet is commissioned and, after a further period of specialised training, posted to a unit. The National service officer is marked down as a potential officer at the outset of his national service, and during his period of recruit training he appears before a War Office selection board, run on similar lines to the regular commissions board. If he passes, he is sent to an officer cadet school, and on completing the course successfully he receives a national service commission.

At the end of his full-time national service, he joins the reserve army as an officer for a further period of parttime service. He may, however, while still at his officer cadet school, decide to make the army his career and apply for a regular commission. In this case he attends a regular commissions board and if successful, is sent to Sandhurst. It is also possible for young men serving in the ranks on regular engagements to obtain regular commissions through Sandhurst. More Regular Officers The British army today is getting more regular officers than it did before the war and they are all of good

quality. Yet shortages exist, particularly in technical arms—engineers, signals and so forth. Two special measures are being taken to improve this situation. The first is a scheme under which young men who have taken or been exempted from engineering or general science examinations of London University may obtain regular commissions in the technical corps direct through National Service, followed by a degree course at the Royal Military College of Science at Shrivenham in Berkshire. This scheme provides an alternative to Sandhurst. The first batch of candidates have now been in the army for about nine months and are due to enter Shrivenham in September. At the same time, the War Office will be opening a school at Welbeck Abbey, in Nottinghamshire, to prepare boys between the ages of 16 and 18 for regular commissions in the technical corps through Sandhurst. The school will be known as Welbeck College, and will be run on the lines of a civilian boarding school with a board of governors and a civilian staff. Welbeck is primary intended for boys who would otherwise leave school altogether at 16. The biggest number of candidates for a regular commission has so far come from public schools, most of which are in the. South of England. What the army wants is more candidates from secondary schools, particularly those in the North of England and Scotland. The new college is an attempt to tap these reservoirs. Two hundred applications have been received, and the first intake of 50 boys will join the college this autumn. It is intended to raise the number later.

The War Office is stimulating officer recruiting in many other ways, notably by encouraging school cadet units and giving them opportunities, at camp and