Fondos 000.7 (D8-D28) - Royal Military College of Canada fonds

The Royal Military College opened in Kingston on 1 June 1876 with 18 cadets, staffed by British military officers and one Canadian civilian. Queen Victoria conferred the title "Royal" in 1878. The first class graduated on 2 July 1880. Before the First World War most ex-cadets took up civilian professions, especially engineering, and 4 graduates received commissions annually in the British army. After 1919 the Royal Military College was staffed by Canadians. Graduates were required to serve in either the active forces of the Crown or the Canadian Militia. The RMC engineering course was recognized as a qualification to practise the profession; certain Canadian universities and provincial law societies accepted RMC graduates to take degrees or diplomas in a final year. Many former cadets held high military rank during the Second World War. The College closed in 1942 but was reopened in 1948 as one of the tri-service Canadian Service Colleges. From 1954 the Regular Officers Training Plan required all Canadian Service Colleges graduates to take a regular commission, but a small Reserve Entry was re-established in 1961. From 1959 RMC granted degrees, and graduate courses were added in 1964. Since the 1970's it has offered bilingual instruction. Women students were first admitted in 1979. In 1995 le Collège militaire royale de Saint-Jean, the Royal Roads Military College and the Royal Military College of Canada were amalgamated in Kingston. The Royal Military College of Canada is now administrated as part of the Canadian Military and Staff Colleges under the Department of National Defence.