Sandhurst Trust

Today is Arms and Services day at Sandhurst for CC192. The Officer Cadets view soldiers and equipment from all branches of the Army as part of their Choice of Arm process.
One of the items on display was this Challenger 2 from the Royal Tank Regiment. The Unit has a number of tanks painted in this eye-catching urban camouflage scheme. Old soldiers may remember the Chieftain Tanks in Berlin were similarly painted in the 1980's.

This morning we visited the Sandhurst Station Nursery to donate a copy of 'My Mummy is a Soldier' for their library. The Sandhurst Trust also recently donated money to pay for new carpet in the nursery.

Prince Henry William Frederick Albert of York was born on 31 March 1900 at York Cottage on the Sandringham Estate. The son of the Duke and Duchess of York, he was 5th in line to the throne when he was born. As a child, Henry was small for his age and suffered from poor health, wearing leg braces, having a nervous disposition and with a pronounced lisp. In 1910 his father became King George V and Henry third in line to the throne. Sent first to St Peter’s Court Prep School in ...
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10 new Mountain Bikes were delivered today to the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst. The Sandhurst Trust donated part of the money to purchase the bikes.
The bikes, provided by Spokes of Bagshot and held by the Academy bike club, will be used by Officer cadets and staff.
Commander Sandhurst Group, Brigadier Bill Wright OBE, permanent staff running the club, Director Sandhurst Trust and Officer Cadets are pictured with representatives of Spokes.

Commissioning Course 192 formed up on Sun 5th May with 188 Officer Cadets, 166 male and 22 female. The oldest cadet is 29, the youngest is 18.
76% of the intake are university graduates and 55% were educated in the State sector. 15% are soldier entrants from the Regular Army, 31% were in a University Officer Training Corps and 24% in one of the Cadet Forces.
There are 23 International Cadets on the intake from 15 countries including the first ever cadet from the Republic of S...outh Korea.
The intake is divided into Burma and Normandy Companies.
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The son of a Royal Navy Captain, Godfrey Douglas Giles was born in Karachi on 9th November 1857. Educated at Cheltenham. Commissioned from Sandhurst in 1875 he served with the 1st Sind Horse in the Second Afghan war and took part in the battle of Khuski-Nahkud in February 1879. Giles next served with the Gordon relief expedition in the Sudan and commanded Turkish cavalry at the battle of El Teb in February 1884. Already an accomplished artist, he sketched the battle and later... produced a large fold-out representation of the battle which was published in the Graphic magazine the following month.
During the Sudan campaign, Giles also took part in the battle of Tamai, which he later painted, and accepted a commission from Lt P S Marling of the 60th Rifles depicting the action for which the officer won the Victoria Cross. Retiring from the army as a major at the end of 1884, Giles travelled to Paris where he studied under the noted artist Charles Durand, known as Carolus-Duran. Having refined his techniques, he exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1885 and Royal Academy 1884-88 before settling in Newmarket and making a living painting racing scenes and is regarded as one of the finest exponents of equestrian art. He also worked as a draftsman and drew caricatures for Vanity Fair magazine.
When the Boer War broke out in 1899 Giles was sent as a war correspondent by The Graphic and was attached to the 1st cavalry brigade. His work is regarded as some of the best to emerge from the war and is exhibited in several regimental museums. At the end of the war he was awarded the Queen’s South Africa Medal. Giles enlisted again in 1914 and served for the duration of the Great War on the home front retiring, again, as a Major in 1919. Godfrey Giles died in Edinburgh on 1st February 1941. Many of his battle scenes now hang in regimental museums as a permanent reminder of one of Britain's finest military artists. His work is especially valued as he was one of the few artists who had actually been in battle. #famousfriday
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Prince Vajiravudh was born in Siam (modern day Thailand) on New Year’s Day 1880. Educated in both Siamese and English he became Crown Prince when his brother died of Typhoid in 1895. The Prince’s education continued in England and he trained at Sandhurst in 1898 before undertaking a short attachment to the Durham Light Infantry. Going up to Oxford to study law and history, he was a member of the notorious Bullingdon Club.
In 1910, upon the death of his father from lung cancer...
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Prince Louis Philippe Robert d’Orléans was born in York House, Twickenham on 6th Feb 1869. The family lived in England after the banishment of his great-grandfather Louis Philippe, King of the French, in 1848. They returned to France in 1871 after the fall of the Emperor Napoleon III and, Philippe entered the French Military Academy at St Cyr. However, in 1886, only a few weeks before commissioning, the family was again exiled and returned to England.
In Feb 1887, on the nom...
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Edgar Rainey Ludlow-Hewitt was born at Cork, Ireland, on 9th June 1886. Educated at Radley College, he was commissioned from Sandhurst in 1905 into the Royal Irish Rifles. Seeing the opportunities offered by the newly-formed Royal Flying Corps (RFC), he transferred in 1914 and gained Royal Aero Club certificate no 886 on 11 September 1914.
Posted to No 1 Squadron, flying reconnaissance aircraft over the Western Front, Ludlow-Hewitt was soon spotted as a future leader as the R...
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It's midnight at the CC182 Commissioning Ball. The countdown has ended and the cloth strips are ripped from the mess kit shoulders to reveal the shiny new rank badges.
The music starts again and the newest generation of Army officers return to the party.
Congratulations to all the newly-commissioned officers of CC182 from The Sandhurst Trust.

10.55pm at the CC182 Commissioning Ball and everybody is outside for the spectacular firework display.

It's 10.35pm and CC182 Commissioning Ball is in full swing. The popcorn is going down a treat and the caricature artist is sketching the cadets and guests. Meanwhile, the countdown to midnight is projected on New College clock tower.

It's 9.20pm at the CC182 Commissioning Ball and the marquee is filling up. Meanwhile some guests opt for a late supper - while others brave the dodgems (and the night air).

It's 8.30pm and the marquee for the Commissioning Ball opens. 179 Officer Cadets from CC182 and almost a thousand guests will soon arrive.

Richard Cockburn was born on 14th June 1914 and educated at Wellington College from 1928 to 1932. He then went to the Royal Military College Sandhurst and was commissioned in the Highland Light Infantry in February 1934. He subsequently took a course at the Small Arms School, Hythe before resigning his commission in 1936.
Cockburn learned to fly at the Lympne Flying Club in 1937 and subsequently took part in several air races making his last flight as a civilian on 28th Augus...
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They're off!
Officer Cadets from CC191 set off on the steeplechase competition on a sunny April morning.
The course is 6miles and is an individual effort, with platoon total scores counting towards the Sovereign's Banner Competition.

Yesterday evening, 20 International Officer Cadets from CC182 received their Sandhurst Medals from the Commandant, Major General Paul Nanson CBE.
The medal, provided by The Sandhurst Trust, is a visible sign that the individual has successfully completed the course at Sandhurst and an increasing number of countries permit their Sandhurst alumni to wear the medal in uniform.

George Peter Walls was born in Salisbury, capital of the self-governing colony of Southern Rhodesia, in 1927. Educated at Plumtree School, he travelled to England in the closing stages of the war and was commissioned from Sandhurst on 16 March 1946 into the Black Watch. However, the post war contraction of the Army led to large numbers of enforced transfers to other units and, dissatisfied with the prospect of leaving his regiment, Walls resigned.
Back in Rhodesia, he enliste...
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