Lieutenant-General Sir Archibald Nye’s Letter
Under a heading The Duke of York’s School the Journal of the Royal United Service Institution published in its July 1954 issue the following submission made by Lieutenant-General Sir Archibald Nye, wartime Vice Chief of the Imperial General Staff. What Nye wrote needs no further elaboration or explanation. It explains why the School underwent a spectacular change in its interior organisation and economy when it returned to its Dover premises in 1946 from its wartime evacuation to North Devon. The transcription is not complete. The missing passage and obscured text are so indicated in square parenthesis.
The Duke of York’s School
1. I have recently read an article in the Royal United Service Institution Journal (May 1954) written by a Lieutenant-Colonel F. Evans on the Duke of York’s Royal Military School from which it is evident that this officer, who purports to write with some authority, is unaware of the background of events in recent years which culminated in a series of measures which affected a fundamental re-organisation of the School. I had imagined that the facts were pretty well known to all concerned but, since this is apparently not so, it is evidently necessary for me to set down the story as I know it - for on-one else could know it so well.
2. I was at the School from 1905 to 1914 and it seems relevant to record my impressions of the School during that time because the action which was taken in recent years springs directly from my experience.
3. The outstanding impression is that the School was organised on predominantly military lines. The people who really mattered were the Commandant, the Adjutant, the Regimental Sergeant-Major, the Bandmaster, the Drum-Major, the P.R. Instructor and the Company Sergeant-Majors of the various Companies. Considerable time was devoted to drill, band and drum practice, physical training and such like military subjects; and the military atmosphere pervaded the whole School.
4. During actual school hours, the instruction was carried out by the then Corps of Army Schoolmasters, but their activities were confined solely to school hours and they had no responsibility for the boys outside the classroom. It is true that some of them took an interest in sports, games and theatricals bit activities were primarily in the hands of the military staff and there seemed to me as a boy a distinct schism between the military and the educational side.
5. The syllabus of education bore no relation to the curriculum current in other educational establishments in the country, and was directly related to the subjects which a boy would ultimately be required to master after having joined the army in order to obtain the first, second and third class certificates of Army education. It thus followed that whatever natural gifts a boy might have they were diverted into certain narrow channels and he was precluded from obtaining scholarships to other schools, universities, etc. At the same time, it should be said that, within these narrow limits, the standard of instruction was uncommonly high. Indeed, I would venture to guess that it was far higher not only than the State elementary schools but many grammar and indeed public schools, and the Corps of Army Schoolmasters had a deservedly high reputation in every respect.
6. The quality of the military staff varied considerably. The first Commandant was a Colonel Mckinstrey, who died shortly after I arrived; the next was a Colonel Murray, a cultured man who, I had the impression, took an active part in London social life and regarded his job at the School, as a secondary affair; he was succeeded by a Colonel Norris, a short fat, man with a fine fighting record in West Africa, foul-mouthed both to his staff and to his wife and utterly unsuited for the job; and the last Commandant was a Colonel Nugent, who had commanded the Irish Guards and had the fine qualities together with the severe limitations of the somewhat typical Guardsman of his era. The subordinated staff varied very considerably but could be described on the whole as a fair sample of the type of N.C.O. and Warrant Officer produced by the old Regular Army of those days with the qualities which they possessed, good and bad.
7. There was an almost entire absence of any feminine influence at the School and for my part I felt this very deeply, particular in my early years at Chelsea.
8. The type of boy varied greatly - from outstanding fine individuals, to ordinary boys produced by regular soldiers, to a quite disproportionate number of boys whose father might well have rendered good service to their country but who had little to offer the School either from the aspect of intelligence or character.
9. The results… [obscured and unreadable text] … equipment was not of a very high order; and the great majority of boys joined the Army at the age of fourteen as band-boys or drummer-boys, a small proportion of the more intelligent becoming Army schoolmasters and a few, very few, going back into civil life. In the circumstances, it was very creditable that so many boys educated in this way ultimately obtained commissions as Quartermasters or reached reasonably high rank in the Army.
10. During the years following the First War various alternations took place, e.g. the Army Education Corps provided a Commandant and there are varying views as to the success of this experiment; “Companies” ceased to exist and “Houses” came into existence; the syllabus was to some extent broadened by the inclusion of handicrafts, etc; a few boys were accepted for Sandhurst but fundamentally my impression was that the disabilities from which the School suffered still existed. I pondered over these question a great deal and formed very definite views as to the steps which it was desirable to take to put affairs on to a sound footing, but many years elapses before I was in a position to influence affairs.
11. During the latter years of the war when I was Vice Chief of the Imperial General Staff and a member of the Army Council I departed from what had hitherto been an inflexible rule in my career. I had never at any time sought either directly or indirectly to obtain my appointment, promotion, honour or award and accepted whatever posting etc. happened to come my way. But I departed from this rule for the first and only time in my life when I suggested that I might become a specially appointed Commissioner to the Duke of York’s School and the then P.U.S. of the War Office (Sir. F. Bovensohen) cordially agreed with this suggestion. My views were as follows:
(a) The military aspect of the School while still of importance should however be relegated to its proper sphere; and only that amount of time devoted to military matters which is given at the ordinary public school.
(b) The educational aspect should be given proportionately greater importance and the educational staff a greater share of responsibility in the ordinary every-day life of the School (this would involve an increase in the education staff, a decreased in the military staff and - most important - the substitution of Housemaster for Company Sergeant- Majors).
(c) The syllabus of education should be brought into line with that of the education system of the country in general and more scope should be given to the individual boy to develop his natural gifts so as to fit him for the career for which his qualities seemed best suited and which he himself would choose to follow.
(d) A more careful selection of entrants should be made so that, while due important should be given to the services of the father, boys should only ordinarily be admitted who had something to offer to the School from the point of view of intelligence, athletic ability, character, etc, so that the backward boy would be eliminated and not become a drag on the progress of the remainder.
12. I realized that the launching of such a project might present some difficulties and as a first step I got in touch with Mr. Morris, who was the Director of Army Education, and unfolded my ideas to him. I asked him if he would make a preliminary survey of the School and outline some of the steps which he considered necessary. He was most co-operative, imaginative and helpful and he produced a report as requested.
13. The next step was to appoint a sub-committee of the Commissioners to examine the problem and I persuaded Sir Robert Whigham to act as Chairman of this Committee which co-opted an Inspector from the Board of Education. It would be difficult to exaggerate the splendid job done by Sir Robert Whigham, who was then a man of nearly eighty. He not only had great mental vigour but remarkable elasticity and understanding of the problem, and it was largely due to his determination and his infinite tact that an almost unanimous report, and moreover on the lines desired, was ultimately produced. Mr. Mowrie (?) (and perhaps the Inspector from the Board of Education) considered the Commandant should be a civilian. With this recommendation both Sir Robert Whigham and I disagreed and our views prevailed.
14. It was obvious that these proposals would required considerably increased financial expenditure including incidentally an improvement in the emoluments of the Commandant. It was owing to the sympathy and goodwill of Sir Brio Speed, the P.U.S. of the War Office at the time (the son of poor parents and an old Christ’s Hospital Boy), and the excellent relations he maintained with the Treasury that financial sanction was ultimately promised.
15. The general attitude of the Commissioners of the School during the latter years of the war was really one of just carrying on; and then these proposals were ultimately put before the Board of Commissioners as a whole the great majority were prepared to accept them with little discussion. There were some Commissioners, however, who expressed grave doubts as to certain aspects of the recommendations and the criticisms fell under two main headings:-
(a) It was pointed out that the Charter for the School laid down quite clearly that the sole qualification for entry into the School was the services of the father and we would be departing from this Charter and without justification if we imposed any form of selection dependent upon intelligence, character, etc.
There was of course some substance to this objection, particularly if one accept the working of the Charter as mandatory. But those of us who hold a different view argued that the Charter had been drawn up 140 years ago at a time when there was no State system of education; when there was no system of social benefits; and when the children of soldiers not otherwise provided for might well find themselves in the gutter. Common sense dictated that we should have regard to the changed conditions of to-day and take the large view that anything which detracted from giving the bulk of boys the best possible education was contrary to the whole spirit of the Charter; that the really backward boy does not himself benefit by admission to the School; and that the measures proposed we morally if not technically justified. But the criticism which I have outline has constantly cropped up at subsequent meetings of the Board of Commissioners and certain individuals have remained critical of the new system of selection. In practice it has been possible to accept without detriment a small number of boys or less than average intelligence but whose admission was justified on grounds of character, thus providing to the greatest possible extent for the orphan and the boy who father has been killed.
(b) The alterations proposed would almost inevitably have the result of reducing the proportion of boys who would go into the fighting services at the end of their school career. Indeed, it was said that the alterations were designed to achieve this very result. Again, there was substance in this comment. But those of us who sponsored the proposals took the view that the main object of the School was to reward the services of the fathers by giving the sons the best possible education and to develop whatever natural abilities they possessed in the most suitable way. It would be perfectly legitimate therefore if any boys who did not wish to join the Army not to do so; moreover it was added that a requirement to join the Army was never one of the conditions of entry. Some Commissioners held, however, that since the School was maintained from Army funds it was implicit that every effort should be made to persuade the maximum number of boys to join one of the fighting services. Again the view of the majority prevailed, but the proportion of boys not joining the Army is still watched with apprehension by some Commissioners.
16. When the proposals became know they met with a great deal of opposition naturally from the existing staff at the School, but also rather surprisingly from a large number of Old Boys (and the Old Boys’ Association of the School is a strong one), who argued generally that what had been good enough for them was good enough for the new generation.
17. I realized quite clearly that, whilst it was a comparatively straight-forward matter to authorise these various changes, the success or failure of the experiment would depend primarily on the manner in which the proposal were carried out and in particular on the choice of the Commandant. I was responsible for the choice of Colonel Barnwell (and the character and personality of Mrs. Barnwell was a substantial factor in our choice. Endless difficulties occurred in carrying out the programme laid down and the Barnwells dealt with those with infinite understanding and tact. I think it is fair to say that, whilst there are still a few critics of the new system, on the whole it is now generally accepted by everyone interested in the School and it is equally true to say that we are just beginning to see satisfactory results emerging and that the proposals for the future give one every cause for satisfaction. But I hope we won’t rest on our oars. I am sure there is still hope for considerable and continuous improvements.
A.N.
8th July 1954