Royal Military College, Sandhurst

Royal Military College, Sandhurst
New College Buildings at Sandhurst
Active	1801–1939/1947
Country	United Kingdom
Branch	British Army
Role	Officer training
Garrison/HQ	Sandhurst, Berkshire
Commanders
Governors, Commandants	List of Governors and Commandants of Sandhurst

The Royal Military College (RMC), founded in 1801 and established in 1802 at Great Marlow and High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, England, but moved in October 1812 to Sandhurst, Berkshire, was a British Army military academy for training infantry and cavalry officers of the British and Indian Armies.

The RMC was reorganised at the outbreak of the Second World War, but some of its units remained operational at Sandhurst and Aldershot. In 1947, the Royal Military College was merged with the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, to form the present-day all-purpose Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.

The Royal Military College was conceived by Colonel John Le Marchant, whose scheme for establishing schools for the military instruction of officers at High Wycombe and Great Marlow first met strong resistance on the grounds of cost. However, in 1801 Parliament voted a grant of £30,000 for it, and in 1802 Le Marchant, appointed as the first Lieutenant Governor of the College, opened its Junior Department at a large house in West Street, Great Marlow, to train Gentleman Cadets for the infantry and cavalry regiments of the British Army and for the Presidency armies of British India, 1802 was the same year as the founding of the French Army's Saint-Cyr and of West Point in the United States.General Sir William Harcourt was appointed as the first Governor of the Royal Military College at Great Marlow and continued in post until 1811.