Officer Training at Mons

By Paul H. Vickers, Friends of the Aldershot Military Museum

During the Second World War there was an urgent need for commissioning junior officers, owing to the demands of the burgeoning wartime army. Sandhurst could not train the numbers needed, so a number of Officer Cadet Training Units (OCTUs) were set up, including at Mons Barracks, Aldershot. This was the start of officer training at Mons which continued in various forms until the early 1970s. Those who passed through never forgot the experience.

The first Mons Barracks (named after the battle of 1914) was opened in 1928 for units of the Royal Corps of Signals, which had been founded in 1920 as a result of the growth and importance of communications during the First World War. The area chosen was originally Smallshot Hill, open ground between the North and South Camps on which the only building was the isolated North Camp magazine. This was demolished and Smallshot Hill levelled to make way for the new barracks. The first units to move into Mons were ‘A’ Corps Signals, 1st and 2nd Division Signals, and the Cavalry Signals Troop.

The men were accommodated in 40 single-storey barrack blocks, each having two large rooms for 15 men either side of a lobby containing ablutions and an NCO’s room. There were 34 quarters for Warrant Officers and married soldiers; the Officers’ Mess accommodated 30 officers; and the Quartermaster and Commanding Officer had separate residences. The total capacity was 32 officers and 1,240 other ranks.

On the outbreak of the Second World War the Signals units were deployed with the British Expeditionary Force, and between 1940 and 1942 Mons was occupied by units of the Royal Canadian Corps of Signals. Also from the start of the war Mons became a centre for officer training when numbers 151 and 152 OCTUs were formed for Royal Signals officers. The purpose of the OCTUs was to train officers quickly for war service, on a six months’ course of essential military skills. The emphasis was on leadership, tactics, and map reading, along with the inevitable elements of drill and physical training, before cadets received specialist technical training. In 1942, 151 and 152 were replaced by 161 OCTU from Sandhurst, whose role was to train officers for the infantry.

After the war there was a re-organisation of officer training. Although most of the wartime army was demobilised, the introduction of National Service meant that demand for junior officers was still greater than could be met from Sandhurst. In 1948 all OCTUs were closed except for those at Mons and at Eaton Hall in Cheshire, which were re-named Officer Cadet Schools. Mons was responsible for officers of the Royal Armoured Corps, Royal Artillery, Royal Engineers, Royal Signals, Royal Army Service Corps, Royal Army Pay Corps, and Army Catering Corps, while Eaton Hall undertook training for all other arms and corps. The first intake to the new school was on 21 May 1948. In 1958 Eaton Hall was closed and all training amalgamated at Mons, now an all-arms school.

Anthony Caffyn had been called up into the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers in 1958 and had done his basic training before passing officer selection and sent to Mons. He found his quarters were wooden huts but “appeared to be more modern than the ones we had been used to, and were altogether more comfortable ... for in our barrack huts we had the luxury of central heating ... We also enjoyed the advantage of having an individual light above each bed.”

Cadets were not spared the tough regime of cleaning and polishing, in fact they had more to do as they were issued more uniform and kit as officer cadets. Philip Stigger arrived in November 1953 and his first two days

“were spent on drawing a ‘best’ battledress and having it tailored to fit, and in attaching white midshipmen’s patches to our lapels, patches which had to be whitened regularly, and placing a white plastic disc behind our cap badges. We were told that the boss on a bayonet scabbard had to be burnished, the scabbard itself painted black, and the bayonet blade blued. We were advised also to purchase a pair of ammunition boots from an Army surplus store to wear on exercises, so that we would have a pair of ‘best boots’ for formal parades.”,

Drill had to be done to a particularly high standard, especially in the early years under Regimental Sergeant Major Ronald Brittain of the Coldstream Guards, RSM at Mons from 1945 to 1954 and reputed to have the loudest voice in the British Army. Leslie Bond had been a bombardier before going to Mons and he remembered at his first encounter with RSM Brittain being told “Get those stripes off - where do you think you are?”

The course at Mons was intensive, as it crammed into ten weeks the basic elements of the Primary and Advanced phases of the Eaton Hall course, in order for the cadets then to receive more specialist training for their respective corps. Mons was tough, with time pressures, technical and physical tests to be passed, and the threat of being “returned to unit” for cadets not up to the required standard.

For those who were successful, their time at Mons ended with a passing-out parade. These were impressive events based on the parades at Sandhurst. At the end of the parade the band played ‘Auld Lang Syne’, the men marched in slow time off the parade ground and up the steps to the school, followed by the Adjutant mounted on a charger. Anthony Caffyn summed up the achievements of Mons:

“The Army had in a very short time to turn all of us from whatever arm of the service we were in into officers, who had the ability to fight, command and lead troops into battle. National Service subalterns had to overcome one other hurdle. Many regular soldiers, who had been with the Colours for a number of years, and who had probably seen active service, were expected in that situation to place their lives in the hands of a ‘still wet behind the ears’ National Service subaltern; who had in all reality only been given a ‘crash course’ in leadership, command and tactical skills. There was a credibility gap, and we probably all found that it took time to win the confidence and respect of the troops under us.”

When National Service ended in May 1961, Mons was given a new role training Officer Cadets for Short Service Commissions for all arms of the regular army, and Probationary Officers of the Territorial Army. In 1971 it was decided that the courses from Mons would move to Sandhurst, and the last passing-out parade was on 4 August 1972.

Following the closure of the Officer Cadet School, Mons Barracks was used by various units for offices and storage, including the Royal Corps of Transport, Royal Army Ordnance Corps and Army Legal Service. The original barracks were demolished in 1988 and new accommodation built to house a battalion of infantry.


Credits

Article originally published in the The Garrison, Autumn 2024

Copyright © Paul H. Vickers. This article, including the accompanying pictures, may not be reproduced or republished, in whole or in part, either in print or electronically, including on any websites or social media sites, without the prior permission of the author.