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Britannia Royal Naval College Dartmouth

Six ships and a shore establishment of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Britannia, after Britannia, the goddess and personification of Great Britain. It was the name given for the preliminary education of naval officers from 1859 to 1905. It was anchored first at Portsmouth, then Portland, and finally off the town of Dartmouth in Devon. The first ship used was the 1820 three-decker Britannia, which was replaced in 1869 by the three-decker Prince of Wales, which became the fifth ship to bear the name Britannia. From 1864 onwards the two-decker Hindostan was moored ahead of Britannia and connected by an enclosed gangway, providing extra accommodation and classroom space.

Cadets joining the Royal Navy were entered into a "term" in Britannia, which they remained in for two years. There were a varying number of terms entered each year, ranging from two to four before normalising at three per annum. If cadets gained enough time through scholarly aptitude and good behaviour, upon leaving for the fleet they were rated Midshipmen; if not then they left as Naval Cadets and had to pass further examinations to become Midshipmen. Over the forty-six year life of Britannia, the training and education changed continually, with seamanship and mathematics being the only constants. In 1880, according to Professor Soley, Naval Cadets received twenty-eight hours of instruction a week, divided between three hours in the morning, and two and a half hours in the afternoon excepting Wednesdays and Saturdays. One hour every evening except Saturday was devoted to evening study, and for the upper two terms half an hour's study before breakfast.

In 1895 the Board of Admiralty began to seriously discuss the construction of a new shore-based training school for naval officers. After much legal wrangling over the purchase of the required land, tenders were issued for construction of a new college by Aston Webb in 1900 and construction began. In 1902 the so-called Selborne Scheme was promulgated, which would institute common training for all officer entrants regardless of which branch or service they wished to join. Only upon reaching the rank of Sub-Lieutenant could an officer join the Engineer Branch or the Royal Marines. Because the new naval college was not yet ready, and would require modifications, it was decided to build a new college in the grounds of Osborne Palace on the Isle of Wight at which Naval Cadets would spend their first six terms (two years), and then progress to the college at Dartmouth for another two years of study. Construction at Osborne began in March, 1903, and the first term of the new scheme was admitted in September.

It was decided that the new college at Dartmouth would not be opened until the first term from Osborne could occupy it. Captain Cross of Britannia [not unnaturally] assumed that he and his staff would transfer to the new Royal Naval College with the terms currently under training. The Commanding Officer of Osborne, Captain Rosslyn Wemyss, and the new Director of Naval Education, Sir Alfred James Ewing, KCB, FRS, MInstCE both agreed however that there could be no mixing of the cadets of the old and new schemes, with the latter writing, "I am very anxious to see that Dartmouth College develops on entirely new lines without Britannia interference or even influence."

The Royal Naval College, Osborne, located in the grounds of Osborne House on the Isle of Wight, served as the junior training establishment for the training of naval cadets of the Military Branch of the Royal Navy from 1903 to 1921. Cadets spent two years under study there before transferring for two years' further study at the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth. The Service Records of Royal Navy personnel educated under this new scheme bear the unromantic entry of "Training Establishment" in lieu of their predecessors, whose records indicate, appoints to Britannia, training ship.

The Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, or Britannia Royal Naval College, was opened in 1905 as the senior training establishment for naval cadets of the Military Branch of the Royal Navy. Cadets were educated there for two years after two years at the junior training establishment, Royal Naval College, Osborne. After Osborne's closure in 1921 all early entry naval cadets were trained at Dartmouth. Officers continue to be trained there today in its guise as Britannia Royal Naval College.