To Serve Canada: A History of the Royal Military College of Canada

Chapter 4. Under the Director of the Regular Officer Training Plan

CHAPTER 4 59 Under the Director of the Regular Officer Training Plan JL he creation of the Directorate of the Regular Officer Training Plan (DROTP) in Ottawa on 30 January 1958 was of greater long-term significance than either RMC'S acquisition of degree-granting power in 1959 or the physical improvements that had begun at RMCin 1957. Something must be said of those improvements, however, because they were necessary to the success of both military and academic aspects of the college program. By 1959 part 1of Air CommodoreD.A.R. Bradshaw' building plan (without the proposed chapel) provided the facilities envisaged in the original 1948 scheme. When the Canadian economy had sagged in 1957, Commodore D.W. Piers had been ready with detailed plans for further construction at RMC. Foremost of these facilities wasthe Massey Libraryto housethe finecollection accumulated by chief librarian John Spurr* in less than a decade. The Massey Library was designed to support RMC'S new postwar academic status by serving its liberal arts and social sciences as well as its science and engineering departments. In addition, there wasto be a civil engineering annex, a senior staff mess, the Constantine Hockey Rink, and a garrison sergeants' mess. The new RMC was at last to be furnished with some of the physical plant it needed to carry out itsmission. The fortunes of the college were now dependent in large degree on relations with the new director of the ROTP (also called DROTP). His role was to coordinate all ROTP, interservice, and university reserve matters. He was responsible to the vice-chiefs of staff for Canadian Services Colleges' curricula, which were to meet appropriate academic standards, and he was to oversee training facilities. He was responsible to the Personnel Members Committee (PMC)for ensuring optimum use of the colleges and for coordinating ROTP selection. He was authorized to issue directives to the colleges on all matters concerning ROTP and he wasto be their sole channel of communicationon all matters of policy.1 This brought another radical departure from RMC'S original statusand function as a largely autonomous college to produce graduates who had the option of becoming part-time officers. Under the DROTP, RMC becam almost exclusively a regular-officer-production college over which the Department of National Defence exercised close control. Through to 1963, the vital formative years of the new degree program, three successive directors , Brigadier-General R.P. Rothschild,** Air Com- *John Wheelock Spurr was chief librarian of RMC from 1949 until his death in 1981. For an appreciation see Richard A. Preston, "In Memoriam —John Wheelock Spurr," Association for Canadian Theatre History, Newsletter 5, 2 (March 1982): 25-9. **Brig.-Gen. R.P. ("Baron") Rothschild (no. 2297) graduated in 1936 and joined the RCA, serving during the war in Europe. He was directo of the Staff College at RMC 1946 and became acting commandant. In 1947 he was military attache in Greece and was appointed DROTP in March 1960. He was QMG 1962-5. 60 TO SERVE CANADA RSMj.E. ("Jack") Coggins, college sergeant major, 1947-58 modore J.B. Millward (a former commandant of Royal Roads),* and Commodore H.V.W. Groos,** supervised officer education in the Canadian Services Colleges and the universities. These officers had a voice in RMC development at a time when it was commanded in turn by Commodore D.W.Piers, Brigadier-General W.A.B. Anderson, and Brigadier-General G.H. Spencer.*** Of considerable importance almost simultaneously were internal personnel changes in the college that also seemed to signal the end of an era. On 31July 1958 Regimental -Sergeant-Major J.E. Coggins had retired. "Coggie ," as he was universally known, had come to RMC in 1929 from the British armyas a physicaltraininginstructor . In 1941 he became the college RSM. During the war he joined the RCR, earned an MBE, and was commissioned . When the college reopened, he readily reverted to RSM in order to return to his former appointme there.Jack Coggins wasa man of extraordinary qualities, a firm disciplinarian with a very human understanding. His influence on the re-establishment of the old RMC'S traditional virtues cannot be overestimated. Widely admired by staff and cadets alike, his departure broke an important link with the prewar RMC.Fortunately, largely because of the soundness of the practices and attitudes on drill and discipline he had re-established or introduced , his successors achieved smooth transition.2 When he died in 1984,Coggins was remembered in a special memorial...