List of Royal Military College of Canada People - Quotations

Quotations

# Name Quotation
General Maurice Baril (RMC 2007)
  • "Thousands of young officers have marched off its parade square and gone on to great achievements in politics, business and most importantly, on the battlefield"
7269 Robert E. Brown (RMC 1968) interviewed by Konrad Yakabuski
  • "A well-aged dankness in the Stone Frigate, the oldest dormitory at Kingston's Royal Military College, is reputed to be ideally suited to the cultivation of spiders, the common cold and a strong character. Residents of the 180-year-old former naval warehouse, which is separated from the other dorms by Parade Square, have long seen the ability to endure their barracks' inhospitable clime as a mark of fortitude."
Sir Andrew Clarke, British inspector-general of fortifications, deceased
  • "one of the best of its class in the world . . . And the Americans themselves, I understand, say better than at West Point.” In 1893 Clarke commented that RMC graduates were better than those from the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich.
H22982 Twenty-sixth Governor-General Adrienne Clarkson C.C., C.M.M., C.O.M., C.D.
  • "You will be called upon to take your place in modern Canada and in the modern world.... You will also be called upon to lead...and a leader must stand for something. You must not only be aware of who you are. You must also be defined by what you do."
Brooke Claxton, former Defence Minister, deceased
  • "The role of the officer in modern war can only be properly discharged if they have education and standing in the community comparable to that of any of the other professions as well as high qualities of character and physique.” In 1947, Claxton reopened RMC as a 3-service cadet college offering a 4-year academic degree.
H24263 Dr. John Scott Cowan
  • "his is an exercise in Nation Building: In the way that water transforms into ice by building around a single crystal, perhaps the new Canada could do worse than to build around the experiences and values of the new RMC."..."We educate those who pass through this place Royal Military College of Canada exactly so that they will fully understand and be a part of the culture they are called upon to defend."
749 General Harry Crerar CH, CB, DSO, KStJ, CD, deceased
  • "I am confident that The RMC Battalion of Gentlemen Cadets, which will be re-born after this war is over will typify in the future all the best College tradition we have known in the past"
Lieutenant-General Sir Arthur Currie, deceased
  • the "spirit" of the Royal Military College of Canada's graduates, "no less than their military attainments, exercised a potent influence in fashioning a force which, in fighting efficiency, has never been excelled."
Captain A.G. Douglas, deceased
  • Suggested, in 1816, the establishment of a Canadian military college in Trois-Rivières to unify the population, "to begin to work upon young minds of different... parties and persuasions" so "old prejudices would vanish not only among the students, but even among their relations, and a common interest would ensue"
Henry Charles Fletcher deceased
  • suggested, in a 1874 report to Governor-General Frederick Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, 1st Marquess of Dufferin and Ava, the establishment of 3 permanent officer training schools (Halifax, Nova Scotia Quebec, Quebec Saint John, New Brunswick) to serve all arms "the great contribution West Point had made could be duplicated in Canada by a similar institution in which officers of all arms would be trained together".
S140 Robert J. Giroux C.M., M.Sc.
  • "A degree from the Royal Military College is a living testament to the value of service and dedication."
S147 Hon. Bill Graham, Defence Minister
  • “RMC has a proud history of excellence and is fundamental in training future leaders of the Canadian Forces,”
19033 Major Nick Grimshaw (RMC’93)
  • "Overall, the training that I was involved in since graduating from RMC prepared me very well for my tour in Afghanistan. I found myself constantly relying on the basic principles of leadership. Leading by example was by far the most important aspect."
Hon Albina Guarnieri, P.C., (MP, Minister of Veterans Affairs
  • "...the Royal Military College where the Veterans of the future are being schooled in our military history and are being prepared to make history themselves." October 17, 2005
Hon. Laurie Hawn (MP Edmonton Centre, Conservative Party of Canada)
  • "The professionalism of the Canadian Forces is, in large part, founded on learning and knowledge. The Canadian Defence Academy, the Military and Staff Colleges and the Royal Military College of Canada, all play a critical role in creating and ensuring knowledge in the defence community."
S148 General Rick Hillier, Chief of the Defence Staff (Canada)
  • " the Royal Military College where a bulk of our new officers start their career, start their education, we have 200 spots open for August . We have 1,500 people who have applied and completed the application process to go to those 200 spots. That is a 7½ to one ratio and we get the opportunity to select the very best from it. As a result, our quality of applicants and the quality of the recruits, the level of fitness and the imagination and the success in completing the courses has skyrocketed in a way that we couldn't even dream about before." 2007 Speech at the National Managers' Forum
22862 Captain Jeremy A. Hiltz (RMC ‘04)
  • "…RMC never taught me how to lead a platoon attack or conduct a Shurah with local Afghan elders, but it has taught me three vital ideas that all officers should adhere to. Truth means leading soldiers from the front and being honest to them at all times. Duty means being there at the front when the bullets start flying because the private soldier that I have just told to assault an enemy position needs to know that I am committed to achieving the mission with him. Valour means taking the difficult orders and making them my own, in spite of the fear of the unknown or the chances that we are taking." Veritas article July 2007, p38
Sir John Keegan OBE, * Kingston, ..., is pure British imperial. ... Watching cadets parade there, I saw them perform a drill movement I knew only from sepia Victorian photographs - it has long been abolished in Britain - while I listened to a running stream of criticism from a sergeant in bottleglass-brilliant boots of their minor imperfections in marching. He hated, he told me after the parade, the adoption by Canada's army of the naval salute - 'the wave, I call it' - he hated the universal green uniform, he hated the use of common ranks - 'How can the captain of a ship be a colonel?' - he hated the disappearance of polished brass - the metal of his pacestick glittered with burnishing - he hated rubber soles, non-iron shirts, nylon uniforms and being mistaken by civilians for an airman. Kipling and he would have got on like a house on fire: 'Ship me somewheres east of Suez, where ... a man can raise a thirst' were almost the next words I expected to hear at the crescendo of his relentless tirade. Spiritually he belonged with the Royal Canadians who had gone to fight the Boers for Queen Victoria; his cadets were unlikely to be allowed to forget that her great-great-granddaughter was Queen of Canada or that he had learnt his drill at the depot of her Foot Guards.' -
Lt. Col. John McCrae (RMC 1893)
  • "...I have a manservant .. Quite a nobby place it is, in fact .. My windows look right out across the bay, and are just near the water’s edge; there is a good deal of shipping at present in the port; and the river looks very pretty.’ letter while on an Artilleryman course
Prime Minister Alexander Mackenzie, deceased
  • Wrote Governor-General Dufferin, in 1878 "This belief led me to propose the establishment of a Military College modelled on existing similar institutions in England and the United States, with the expectation that when the first batch of Graduates were leaving the College. Means would be found to employ the Graduates in the Canadian Military Service"
490 Brigadier F. H. Maynard (RMC 1901), deceased
  • "I have always remembered with pride that I was a graduate of the RMC. What I learned there carried me through many dangers and difficulties and I wish to record here my gratitude to all who taught me and with whom I served at the RMC, Canada."
Hon. Peter MacKay, Minister of National Defence
  • "The Royal Military College is a higher education institution that plays an essential role for the Canadian Forces and for our country...Throughout the ranks, the leadership of the Canadian Forces is smart, flexible and adaptive. And a good deal of the credit for this should go to the Royal Military College... This is a vital national institution. Here, today, much of tomorrow’s military leadership is being forged... RMC will continue to provide the professional development that the CF needs to successfully face the challenges that surely lay ahead."
Twentieth Governor-General Roland Michener, P.C., C.C., C.M.M., C.D., LL.D. deceased
  • "RMC, which is only nine years younger than Confederation, has been a powerful factor in the growth and security of the country"
Colonel Sir Frederick Dobson Middleton deceased
  • “there are very few institutions of a similar character equal to it in Europe and none that are better.”
S149 Hon Peter Milliken, Member of Parliament 2001
  • The motto of the Royal Military College is (as you well know), "Truth, Duty, Valour". Your admission to the ranks of this institution, whether it occurred this year or two decades ago, as cadets or as staff, presupposes that you are already possessed of these qualities. That having been said, there is always room for improvement, and the College's role in this regard is to inculcate in its cadets a sense of integrity, responsibility, self-discipline, teamwork, and leadership.
8850 Rear Admiral (Ret'd) David C. Morse (RMC 1971)
  • "We have a lot to be proud of and the graduates are making a tremendous contribution to Canadian society. We need to tell this story again and again. We need to make sure the graduates who have reached levels of prestige are recognized."
  • "RMC makes engineers literate and artsmen numerate."
S157 Honourable Gordon O'Connor
  • "RMC is one of the best military colleges in the world, and it takes motivation and discipline to succeed here."
13511 Bernard JG Ouellette (CMR ‘78), RMC’s Director of Cadets
  • "I’m very proud of these young men and women. They put in months of rigorous training on top of an already demanding schedule, and today, their dedication, fitness and teamwork paid off"
H16511 Dr. Richard A. Preston (former professor), deceased
  • "The supreme test of a military college is the success of its graduates in war...There were some who believed that the stronger academic program must inevitably have weakened the old military spirit and efficiency. But the success of the graduates who went directly to Korea quickly disabused them."
Dr. Michael Sullivan (former Kingston mayor), deceased
  • 1872 petition recommended the military college for Kingston "remarkable healthfulness...not without historical fame in the annals of the country which would render it the more proper site for a military college"
Kevin Sylvester, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Radio, Sounds Like Canada 2007/07/26
  • "Like its counterparts Sandhurst in the U.K, West Point in the U.S. and l'École militaire in France, Canada's Royal Military College is the school of choice for many of this country's future military leaders."
Rt. Hon. Sir Charles Tupper (1886), deceased
  • "I regard the Canadian Military College as one of the best of its class in the world. The training and results are in every way of a high order, and the Americans themselves, I understand, say better than at West Point."
2951 General (Ret'd) Ramsey Muir Withers
  • "...The College must also promote a common vision of the profession of arms, the common military ethos underpinning leadership in the CF and the increasingly joint nature of all foreseeable operations."
Unknown
  • By 1900, hardly a Canadian "bridge, road, or railway line was built without the assistance of an engineering graduate of RMC."

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