College History

HISTORY:

The first Staff Course to be organized by the Canadian Army was conducted at Ford Manor in England in 1941. Eleven subsequent War Staff Courses of four to six months duration were held at the Royal Military College, Kingston. In 1946, the Canadian Army Staff College was made a regular establishment of the Canadian Army. The following year the College moved to its present location at Fort Frontenac.
The four to six month Staff Course was conducted annually from 1946 to 1958. In 1959, the course was extended to two years. In 1965, the one-year course was reinstated and maintained until 1973. In 1974, a new staff training system was initiated by the unified Canadian Armed Forces. The three tiered system consisted of a ten week Junior Staff Course, followed by a five month Land Forces Staff Course, and finally by the year long Canadian Forces Staff Course. Initially called the Junior Command and Staff Course (Land), the course was 16 weeks in duration. In 1975, it was decided to drop the word 'Junior' from the course title and rename the course "The Canadian Land Forces Staff Course" and extend the length of the course to 20 weeks. At the same time, the College was renamed "The Canadian Land Force Command and Staff College".

In 1996, the College closed its doors for a year to re-design the 20 week course, the result of which was two new courses. The Land Force Staff Course (LFSC) was an 18 week course conducted twice annually. The Land Force Command and Staff Course (LFCSC) was a 20 week course conducted once annually for graduates of the LFSC.

As a result of an Army Officer Professional Development Review in 1999 - 2000, the College once again changed its course structure to allow for all officers to receive formal command and staff training. Up until 2000, only selected officers received this training. Thus in 2001, the College reverted to a one course model, this time designated as the Transition Command and Staff Course (TCSC). The TCSC is a 16 week course, the first six weeks of which are taught via the Internet using Distributed Learning (DL) teaching methodologies. The TCSC is the temporary precursor to the Army Operations Course (AOC) which is an 18 week course, the first serial of which will be conducted in 2003.
 

CREST:

In 1868 the owl resting on crossed swords and surmounted by a crown, together with the motto "Tam Marte Quam Minerva' was adopted as the crest of the British Army Staff College, Camberley. The design was due to the joint efforts of Captain (later Major-General) JN Crealock, a student at the College, and Brevet Major (afterwards Lieutenant-Colonel) AS Jones, VC, the Adjutant at the time. Captain Crealock was a gifted amateur artist, and seeing that the College did not possess a crest he offered to design one. Minerva is the goddess of war and of wisdom in roman Mythology, and the owl was her favourite bird.

There are various translations of the motto, but one of the best seems to be that given by Field-Marshal Earl Wavell when making the Haldane Memorial lecture in January, 1948. The Field-Marshal translated the motto as: "By fighting as much as by writing" or "By kill as much as by skill", which he said was a reminder that operation orders do not win battles without the valour and endurance of the soldiers who carry them out. In 1956, the senior Classics master at Wellington College, Berkshire, when asked for his opinion, gave it that the Latin used in the motto is a correct Latin phrase, and since the construction placed a trifle more stress on Mars than on Minerva a free translation he suggested might be "With understanding and with force of arms" or "Practical as well as theoretical soldiering here". This seems to fit in well with Lord Wavell's translation quoted above.

In 1946, a Canadian adaptation of the Staff College Camberley Crest was drawn up. This adaptation was basically similar except a band was carried across the base with the word CANADA on it. On 23 April 1946, the Staff College Camberley notified their complete agreement with the Canadian adaptation and a few weeks later approval of the Military Members of the Army Council was granted. On 30 May 1946, the War Office was consulted and stated it had no objection to the use of the Canadian adaptation of the Staff College Camberly Crest by the Canadian Army Staff College, and this latter date is construed as the date that it became the official crest of the Canadian Army Staff College. In February 1977, the present form of the College crest was officially authorized as the crest of the Canadian Land Force Command and Staff College. It was felt that the Snowy Owl was more emblematic of a Canadian Staff College and accordingly the Canadian Snowy Owl replaced the Horned Owl.