Royal Roads Military College

Infobox_University
name = Royal Roads Military College


motto = Truth, Duty, Valour
established = 1940
type = Military college
chancellor = MND
commandant = N/A
principal = N/A
city = Victoria, British Columbia
state = BC
country = Canada
undergrad = N/A
staff = N/A
campus = Hatley Park
free_label = Closed
free = 1995
website= [http://www.rrmc.ca/ rrmc.ca] |

Royal Roads Military College (RRMC) was a Canadian military college (1940 to 1995) located in Hatley Park, Colwood, British Columbia near Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. The facility is currently being used as the campus for Royal Roads University, a public university that offers applied and professional academic programs. The centrepiece of the campus is Hatley Castle, constructed in the early part of the 20th century by B.C. coal baron James Dunsmuir for his wife, Laura. The house had been purchased as a wartime residence for the King, Queen, and their daughters.

The gentlemen cadets of RRMC were not only required to excel in their respective academic fields, but to achieve the standard in the three other components as well, the Second Language Training component, Physical Fitness component and the Military component. Failure in any of these four components resulted in the officer cadet not being awarded the coveted RRMC degree. In February 1994, after the end of the Cold War and under the pressure of massive spending cuts from the Government of Canada, the Department of National Defence announced that it was would be closing Royal Roads Military College, along with the "Le Collège militaire royal de Saint-Jean" (CMR) in St-Jean Sur Richelieu. CMR however was retained as an educational institution for lady and gentlemen cadets, as a preparatory college for certain cadets before proceeding to the Royal Military College Kingston. The final class graduated in May 1995.

Hatley Park and former Royal Roads Military College was declared a National Historic Site of Canada in 1995 to commemorate the Dunsmuir family (1908-1937) and RRMC (1940-1995). The site was plaqued in 2000 as a Canadian example of an Edwardian park, with gardens, which remains practically intact. HMCS Royal Roads is a Canadian naval training centre commissioned on 13 December 1940. This was the first of a series of related institutions to be set up by the Department of National Defence at Hatley Park in Esquimalt, British Columbia.

Designed to support Canada's naval war effort, it was operated as an Officer Training Establishment until October 1942. Many of the 600 volunteer reserve officers who underwent training during this time served in the Battle of the Atlantic. The HMCS Royal Roads was used to train short-term probationary Royal Canadian Navy Volunteer Reserve (RCNVR) sub-lieutenants to serve in World War II.

The name Royal Roads was drawn from geography. The name refers to an anchorage located in Juan de Fuca Strait between the city of Victoria, British Columbia and Albert Bay. The HMCS Royal Roads was located on a property originally purchased by James Dunsmuir in 1902. Dunsmuir was a former British Columbian Premier and Lieutenant-Governor. The Hatley Park Estate originally comprised 650 acres. The Dunsmuir family added Hatley Castle, which was completed in 1908. The Canadian Department of National Defence purchased Hatley Park, almost in its entirety, in 1940, for $75,000. This sum was roughly the value of the fence surrounding the property.

As Executive Officer, Commander Reginald Amand (Jumbo) Webber D.S.C., C.D. served there till late 1942. On June 21, 1995, after negotiations with the Department of National Defence and the Government of British Columbia, the British Columbia government passed the Royal Roads University Act, creating Royal Roads University. The campus is currently leased from the federal government under a $1, 50-year lease agreement with Royal Roads University which was announced in 2001. The Department of National Defence leases approximately 55 hectares of land for the campus to Royal Roads University, and has entered into a five-year Renewable Management Agreement with the University for the maintenance of the remaining 175 hectares of property owned by the Department of National Defence.

Notable historical milestones

Commandants

Quotes

Trivia

The campus of Royal Roads was used as:
* the Professor Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters in the "X-Men" movies. [http://www.imdb.com/List?endings=on&&locations=Royal%20Roads,%20Colwood,%20British%20Columbia,%20Canada&&heading=18;with+locations+including;Royal%20Roads,%20Colwood,%20British%20Columbia,%20Canada]
* the Luthor Mansion, the estate belonging to Lex Luthor in TV series "Smallville".
* the Shady Glen School in the 1997 movie, Masterminds
* the hideout in "MacGyver", season 5, "The Legend of the Holy Rose, part 2"
* the home for royal family in TV series "Seven Days", episode 9, season 2 "Love and Other Disasters"

Books

* Peter J.S. Dunnett “Royal Roads Military College 1940-1990, A Pictorial Retrospective” (Royal Roads Military College, Victoria, BC 1990)
* 4237 Preston, Dr. Adrian & Peter Dennis (Edited) Swords and Covenants. Rowman And Littlefield, London. Croom Helm. 1976.
* H16511 Preston, Dr. Richard A. Canada's Royal Military College: A History of the Royal Military College, Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 1969.
* H1877 Smith, R. Guy C. (editor) As You Were! Ex-Cadets Remember. In 2 Volumes. Volume I: 1876-1918. Volume II: 1919-1984. Royal Military College. [Kingston] . The R.M.C. Club of Canada. 1984
* To Serve Canada: A History of the Royal Military College since the Second World War, Ottawa, University of Ottawa Press, 1991.
*4669 Roht, Toivo (CMR RMC 1960) "Collège militaire royal de Saint-Jean, Royal Roads Military College and Royal Military College 1955-2006" 2007
* Maurice Robinson, Bev Hall, Paul Price 'Royal Roads : a celebration' Natural Light Productions, Victoria, B.C., 1995.

See also

* Royal Military College of Canada
* Royal Military College Saint-Jean
* The Canadian Crown and the Canadian Forces
* Monarchy in British Columbia
* Royal Roads University

References

External links

* http://www.hmcshaida.ca/webber.html
* http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0005284
* [http://www.rrmc.ca/about.asp More comprehensive history presented by RRMC class of '94]
* [http://www.hatleypark.ca/ Hatley Castle] Template group
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