Committee on Military Education

On 29 Apr 1901, the Committee on Military Education was appointed to consider and report what changes, if any, were desirable in the system of training and educating candidates for the British Army at public schools and universities, and in the relationship between these bodies and the military authorities, so as to ensure a supply of better trained candidates for the British Army. The committee investigated whether it was desirable to maintain the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst and the Royal Military College at Woolwich and, if so, whether the system of administration and education at these institutions was satisfactory. It also studied whether the instruction at these institutions should be purely military and technical, or whether it should embrace general scholarly education as well. In addition, the committee investigated whether officer candidates who entered the Army though the militia compared favourably with those trained at Sandhurst and Woolwich. The committee first met on 2 May 1901. From 9 May 1901 to 12 Dec 1901, it held 41 sittings and interviewed 73 witnesses, including high ranking officers. Its findings were presented in two volumes to the Secretary of State for War in 1902, and subsequently published for public consumption.