page_title: Royal Roads University
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Royal Roads University / History
caption_attribution_description: English: close up of stained glass windows in grant block at royal roads by sam gusway
context_page_description: Royal Roads University is a public university with its main campus in Colwood, British Columbia. It is located on the grounds of the former Royal Roads Military College at Hatley Park National Historic Site on Vancouver Island. Following the decommissioning of RRMC in 1995, the government of British Columbia created Royal Roads University as a public university with an applied and professional degree-granting focus. Royal Roads University maintains strong ties with the Canadian Forces and considers alumni of RRMC to be part of its broader alumni community. Royal Roads University has now graduated over 20,000 students in the fields of leadership, business, environment, communication, tourism, hospitality and social justice who are working in over 60 countries around the world.
context_section_description: The university's main building, Hatley Castle, was completed in 1908 for coal and rail baron James Dunsmuir, who was Premier of British Columbia and then Lieutenant Governor during the first decade of the 1900s. At the outbreak of World War II, plans were made for King George VI, his wife Queen Elizabeth, and their two daughters, Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret, to reside in Canada. Hatley Castle was purchased by the federal government in 1940 for use as the King's royal palace, but it was decided that having the Royal Family leave the UK at a time of war would be too big a blow to morale, and the family stayed in London.
  After the death of Dunsmuir and then his widow Laura, the family sold the estate to the federal government in 1940 to be used by the military. HMCS Royal Roads (named after an offshore naval anchorage) was commissioned in December 1940 to train reserve officers for service in World War II. The institution had several names before it eventually became Royal Roads Military College in 1968 (achieving full degree-granting status in 1975).
  Petty Officer First Class Gabby R. Bruner, Royal Roads bandmaster from 1979–85, composed `Hatley Park` as the official quick march for RRMC and `Dunsmuir Castle` for the visit of Queen Elizabeth II to Royal Roads in 1983.
  When the military college was decommissioned, many of the academic staff stayed on. The historic buildings of the military college, and the extensive gardens, which were part of the estate of the Dunsmuirs, continue to be a centrepiece of the campus. Hatley Castle, the former residence of the Dunsmuir family, houses a small Canadian Military museum.
  In June 1995, Royal Roads University became a public degree-granting university. A replica of Horatio Nelson's quote, "Duty is the great business of a sea officer: All private considerations must give way to it however painful it is", which hung over the entrance to the Grant Building, was returned to Royal Roads University's campus for Homecoming in 2011.
caption: Royal Roads Military College stained-glass window
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