Long before the Royal Military College was established in 1876, there were proposals for military colleges in Canada. Although the Assembly of Lower Canada decided to establish a military college in 1815, agreement upon its organization was blocked by religious and racial conflicts. Captain A.G. Douglas, a former adjutant at the British military college at Great Marlow, recommended in 1816 the establishment of a military college open to Catholic and Protestant boys at Three Rivers in a disused government house with himself as superintendent. Douglas' college was intended as a boarding school to educate the young sons of officers, amongst others, in Latin, English language, French Language, History, Geography, Drawing and Mathematics. In 1826, retired British navy and army officers who had settled in March township, near Ottawa, Ontario proposed a military college boarding school for boys on the Great Lakes on naval and military lines.
During the US Civil War, military schools staffed by British Regulars were established for adult male students to undergo a 3 month long military course in Toronto, Ontario and Quebec, Quebec in 1864, and at Montreal, Quebec Kingston, Ontario London, Ontario and Hamilton, Ontario in 1865. Although the military colleges in London and Hamilton had disbanded in 1865, the schools at Quebec, Montreal, Kingston and Toronto were retained at Confederation, in 1867. In 1868, schools of Calvalry and Artillery were formed in Toronto and a school of artillery was formed in Montreal. Since these were not Boarding schools, students lived in the communities.
At a pre-Confederation of Canada military school in Halifax, Nova Scotia, adult male students drilled and attended lectures on drill commands, military records, court-martial, the Articles of War, discipline and punishments, promotion of non commissioned officers, military accounts and pay and messing. After Confederation, military schools were opened in Halifax and Saint John.
In 1870–1, Canadian militia staff replaced the British regulars who were recalled from overseas station. From December to May, six schools conducted officer training for calvalry, infantry and artillery. The British Garrisons operated the schools at Halifax, Saint John, New Brunswick and Quebec. Canadian militia staff and former British army drill sergeants operated the schools at Montreal, Kingston and Toronto.
The first full-time units of the Canadian militia, A and B Batteries at Kingston and Quebec, organized gunnery schools on a year round basis in which artillery courses lasted from 3–12 months with the possibility of extension. Colonel P Robertson-Ross, adjutant general of the militia (1870–3) recommended the schools be organized as tactical brigades of three arms and that infantry and calvalry schools should also be put on a permanent basis. The Canadian government did not accept his advice.[93]
A plaque located at the college describes the college's history: "Following the withdrawal of British forces from Canada in 1870-71, the federal government recognized the need for an officer training college in Canada. In 1874, during the administration of the Hon. Alexander Mackenzie, enabling legislation was passed. Located on Point Frederick, the site of the former Royal Naval Dockyard, the new college opened on June 1, 1876, with 18 cadets under Lt.-Col. Edward O. Hewett, R.E. Named the Royal Military College of Canada in 1878, it offered academic and military training courses designed to prepare cadets for both military and civil careers. The college was reorganized in 1948 as a tri-service institution and, in 1959, it became the first military college in the British Commonwealth to achieve degree-granting status."[94]
The Royal Military College of Canada "was the first military college to be established in a colonial dependency and it had a double function, the preparation of cadets for civilian careers as well as for military commissions." Richard A Preston, Canada's RMC. The Kingston Royal Naval Dockyard was a Royal Navy yard from 1788 to 1853 at the site of the current Royal Military College of Canada.
The first college Commandant, Lieut. Colonel Hewett, made the first public announcement of the college motto and ‘device’ (badge) during a prize presentation held at the Kingston Military College on 11 February 1878. “I now have to tell you Gentlemen Cadets, that a device and motto has been selected for the Military College. The device, a mailed arm bearing a maple leaf; symbolical of the position you, as the future officers of Canada, should hold towards your country as represented by the maple leaf. The motto, “Truth, Duty, and Valour,”- three simple words in plain English -that all who run may read."
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