Royal Naval College Greenwich Centenary 1873 - 1973
The Present Task
WRNS Officer Training Course
A 3-months course for cadets, both selected WRNS ratings and Direct Entry
recruits. (These latter, holders of a degree, diploma, secretarial or other
suitable qualification, have also served as ratings for 3 months.) The first
two months is a promotion course, at the end of which successful students, as
Probationary Third Officers, become full Mess Members. The third month is spent
on aaaaministrativeministrative training. The syllabus is designed to broaden
the outlook and develop the personal qualities of the cadets. It includes wide
coverage of Service matters and naval history, current affairs and the Arts,
sometimes in association with the LGC and always backed by outside visits.
Housed in the supposedly Byng-haunted quarters in Queen Anne block, these naval
ladies (about 16 in number) provide a charming addition to the Greenwich Mess.
Department of History and International Affairs
This is
headed by a Professor and has a staff of 6 civilian and 2 Service lecturers. It
provides the General Education content for all courses, organises seminars and
develops links with Universities and other outside organisations such as the
Royal Institution of International Affairs (Chatham House), the Royal United
'Service Institute, the Institute of Strategic Studies, the Society for.
Nautical Research and the Navy Records Society. Its staff has provided many
well known works of naval scholarship and plays an active part in the many
College non-curricular activities.
Department of Nuclear Science and
Technology
This is the youngest but largest department in the College.
Its civilian Professor is supported by an Assistant Professor, 11 civilian and
8 Service lecturers, and a technical and research staff. The Department was
opened in 1959, just 3 years before the Navy's first nuclear submarine, HMS
DREADNOUGHT, developed steam from nuclear energy for the first time. It has its
own 10 KW nuclear research and training reactor (housed in the King William
Building) - the first wholly Naval reactor to achieve criticality when it was
commissioned in 1962, and indeed the first critical power reactor to be
installed in any educational establishment in the country.
The
Department is the main centre for the nuclear education of all officers and
civilians concerned with the Navy's nuclear programme. Courses now range from a
one-year MSc Course for officers entering the research, design or development
fields, through a 6-months Post-Graduate Diploma Course for Engineer Officers
operating nuclear systems, to 2 or 3-weeks familiarisation courses for those
engaged in less direct supporting activities. In all, 8 different types of
Course are now provided for about 250 students each year. They cover the
specialist requirements of the seaman officers of the nuclear submarines, the
requirements of the Dockyards engaged in-nuclear maintenance and refuelling
tasks and the vital health and safety operations. Over 1,500 officers and
civilians have been through the Department's courses ranging from Admiral to
newly qualified Sub-Lieutenant, from Medical Officer to Physicist, Chemist,
Metallurgist and Systems Analyst. The Department has probably as wide a range
of modern complex equipment as the best comparable University Department in the
country, and includes the research and training reactor 'JASON', extensive
digital and analogue computing systems, reactor simulators, electrical and heat
transfer laboratories, health physics and radiation protection laboratories,
video tape and closed circuit TV. The staff are widely recognised as experts in
their fields and under-take considerable liaison work with the nuclear
industry, Universities, local Colleges, the Local Authority, and MOD(N)
operational and design departments. Many of these support, collaborate in, or
make active use of the research work and facilities of the Department and some
of the marine environment research and investigatory work now being carried out
is arousing wide interest both nationally and internationally. The Department
is supported by the Science Research Council with one Research Fellow and two
Research students.
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