page_title: Royal Military Academy, Woolwich
section_title: Closure and aftermath
hierarchical_section_title: Royal Military Academy, Woolwich / History / Closure and aftermath
caption_attribution_description: English: View from the east of the former Royal Military Academy in Woolwich, Southeast London. The buildings are now being developped into apartments.
context_page_description: The Royal Military Academy at Woolwich, in south-east London, was a British Army military academy for the training of commissioned officers of the Royal Artillery and Royal Engineers. It later also trained officers of the Royal Corps of Signals and other technical corps. RMA Woolwich was commonly known as "The Shop" because its first building was a converted workshop of the Woolwich Arsenal.
context_section_description: Following the demise of the Board of Ordnance, Parliament had explored the possibility of a merger between the Royal Military Academy and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst (which only trained officers for the Infantry and Cavalry); although senior Army officers rejected the idea at the time it persisted into the twentieth century. Arguments in favour of a merger gained momentum in the 1920s when the specialist and scientific training which had been Woolwich's preserve began to be outsourced to other locations. In 1936 it was decided that the merger should take place; but the Second World War intervened and in 1939 both institutions closed as their cadets were called up for active service.
  The Royal Military Academy Woolwich closed in 1939 and in 1947 the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst was formed on the site of the former Royal Military College with the objective of providing officer training for all arms and services.
  Thereafter, the old Academy site became part of Woolwich Garrison, housing troops of various types in the years that followed. The central block was taken over by the Royal Artillery Institution and housed a museum, archives and offices. The chapel (commissioned in 1902 by Commandant Richard Henry Jelf, commemorated by a brass plaque in the chapel) became the Garrison Church (replacing the bombed out Garrison Church of St George). In this way the old Academy continued in military use through the 20th century, but with the number of personnel based in Woolwich having steadily decreased, the site was in 2002 declared surplus to requirements.
caption: Refurbishment of the site underway in 2015
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