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The Officer Cadet School Portsea |
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"Loyalty and Service" |
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The Australian
Army's Officer Cadet School at Portsea in Victoria existed for 34 years
from 1952 to 1985. Less in the public eye than RMC Duntroon, its older
counterpart located in the national capital, OCS Portsea can nonetheless
claim that its products constituted the backbone of the ARA officer
corps for many years. In its lifetime it turned out 2,825 junior
officers for the Army (40% of the total) compared with RMC's 2,022 (28%)
over the same period.
The origins of OCS lay in the need for a substantial increase in the output of officers in the early 1950s to support commitments in Japan and Korea and to provide junior officers to train the new national servicemen during their three months full-time duty. The four-year course at Duntroon was simply not flexible enough to perform this role. In the 1960s a new conscription scheme and the expanding commitment to Vietnam created fresh need for Portsea graduates. After Vietnam Portsea continued to flourish, providing about 50% of all new officers for the ARA compared with RMC's 39%. But its position was challenged by the decision to establish ADFA to take over the academic education of RMC cadets. As Neville Lindsay suggests, OCS could have taken over the military training role of RMC and the latter might have disappeared. But tradition weighed heavy and it was OCS Portsea that was destined to lose its identity on incorporation into RMC. It is worthwhile and timely, therefore, to record the achievements of OCS Portsea and to assess its contribution to officer training. Neville Lindsay's book does both tasks superbly well, offering a wealth of detail for the historical record and providing a balanced judgement of Portsea's contribution to the Australian Army and the wider world. Loyalty and Service offers a factual record of immense variety. It covers the early history of the Portsea area and the original quarantine station on the site (for some years cadets had to be ready to evacuate within 24 hours in the event of a quarantine emergency). The bulk of the work, however, records cadet life: daily routines, training activities, discipline and punishments, living conditions and cadet language, prizes and awards, insignia and clothing scales, sporting efforts and entertainment (approved and unapproved). There is comment, too, on selection boards and recruitment, on cadet organisation and rank structure, on bastardisation and the travails of married cadets in the early years. All of this is amply illustrated by photographs, diagrams, lexicons, cartoons, maps and pictures, many of the latter in full colour. As befits such a history, all graduates are recorded and there are photographs of every graduating class. The focus of the book, as the author acknowledges, is on the cadets, not on the staff. For it is those who came in as more or less raw recruits and who left after 12 short months to take up command positions who were the life-blood of the institution. Loyalty and Service records their trials and triumphs with insight and a degree of justifiable pride. The book also provides material for assessing Portsea's contribution to the Army and to Australia. Though cadets were told in the early years that they could not hope to go beyond the rank of major, reality turned out rather different. OCS can boast two Major Generals so far and with 6 Brigadiers, 35 Colonels and 139 Lieutenant Colonels still serving in 1995, more can be expected. OCS graduates can also look back on a distinguished record of active service. Over 40 served in the Malayan Emergency and in Borneo while large numbers fought in Vietnam where 86 graduates won operational awards. Nor should one overlook the impact of the 700 or so graduates who went into other forces, among them 378 to New Zealand, 91 to Malaysia, 61 to PNG (including a future Deputy Prime Minister and a leader of the Bougainville Revolutionary Army), 40 to Singapore and 38 to the Philippines. Three African armies-Kenya, Uganda and Nigeria-also sent future officers to Portsea while another exotic force, the RAAF, received 30 OCS-trained officers (one of whom is now a federal MP). In the last year of OCS female cadets were admitted and 14 graduated. It was typical of the college that it did not shrink from the difficulties involved. For OCS proved itself over the years to be an adaptable and enterprising institution. Colonel Neville Lindsay has told its story with balance, insight and a keen eye for detail. Loyalty and Service has much to offer not only to graduates who will want to remember and reminisce but also to those interested to learn about an institution that was a vital part of the Australian Army for over 30 years of war and peace. - Hugh Smith, Department of Politics, Australian Defence Force Academy. |
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Neville Lindsay, Loyalty and Service: The Officer Cadet School Portsea, Historia Productions, PO Box 604, Kenmore 4069, 1995. xvi + 354 pp.SABRETACHE Vol. XXXVII - Jan/Mar 1996 - No.1 - pages 40-41. |
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The Portsea badge |
| The OCS badge was originally selected by the late General J. Harrison during his term as Commandant of OCS between 1952 - 54. He felt that the badge should be completely non-partisan, as OCS provided officers to most corps. The badge had to be different from that of RMC and therefore General Harrison chose the general staff badge, a lion on a crown. | |
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The original design was in fact the general staff badge (crowned lion), surrounded by a garter, and all surmounting a scroll with a crown on top of the garter. This design was drawn by a clerk working then in DMO&P; however, on submission of this design it was considered by AHQ that three crowns were just "one too many". Thus the top crown was eliminated, much to the disapproval of General Harrison who considered that without the third crown the design looked like "an egg on a lettuce leaf". So far as the motto was concerned, General Harrison racked his brains and those of other people on his staff for some time for a simple motto. He decided to avoid Latin, complicated or hackneyed mottos. In General Harrison's view, the motto chosen - "Loyalty and Service" - epitomised the ideal approach of a young man to the Service way of life. In December 1959, the shape of the OCS badge was accepted, without the third crown, then began the tedious task of selecting appropriate colours to enhance the look of the badge whenever it was displayed on buildings or flags. From December 1959 to September 1960 coloured designs circulated between OCS and AHQ, and after minor adjustments the colours were approved on the 6th September 1960.
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