18 May 2010
Thousands of courses have been taught there, and many thousands of soldiers and officers have passed through the doors of the Army Schools in one form or another. As the Land Operating Training Centre celebrates its 125th anniversary, Army senior communications adviser Bas Bolyn looks at its history, and how it has developed into the Army largest individual training unit.
On 11 May 125 years ago The Army Schools, the predecessor of what is today the Land Operations Training Centre (LOTC) was established.
LOTC traces its history to 1885, when Colonel Whitmore, the first Commandant of the New Zealand Forces, established a school of instruction for the professional training of the Army.
The first Army School of Instruction was short-lived, and its replacements experienced many structural and name changes. Despite these re-animations, there remained a need for individual instruction and training to continue and in 1950 the label Army Schools stuck.
That it remained until 1 July 1994, when Army Schools was reorganised into two separate units, the Army Combat Centre and the Army Logistics Centre. This lasted less than two years when it reverted back into a single unit, LOTC, at the start of 1996.
Today, LOTC conducts courses across the Army, Defence Force and also in conjunction with tertiary providers such as WelTec and UCOL.
By the Numbers
LOTC has a number of students studying under its care, based in Waiouru, Linton, Burnham and Trentham. This year it will conduct 257 courses and teach 3306 personnel. Almost three-fifths of the Army will have engaged with LOTC over the year.
There are 250 staff posted to LOTC and there are currently 176 long-term, indentured personnel under training (PUTs).
LOTC has a Headquarters and 11 schools in its organisation, including:
- Combat School
- Joint Services Catering School
- Logistics Operations School
- School of Army Administration
- School of Artillery
- School of Military Intelligence and Security
- School of Signals
- Tactical School
- Trade Training School
- Joint Services Health School
- School of Military Engineering
Future Focus
LOTC also caters to much more than just Army students. The name in itself, Land Operations Training Centre, reflects the expanding tri-Service nature of training undertaken in the NZDF.
Joint Services Health School training is tri-Service, fire-fighting training often occurs with RNZAF counterparts and there are tri-Service intelligence and security courses.
In many ways this presents the future of Army training, while Service-specific training will still be met by individual Services, training excellence will occur by taking advantage of the collective expertise and experience of all three Services.
The Training and Education Directorate under the Defence Transformation Programme is now investigating what other areas have commonality in training.
The Commandant wrote at the time of the Army Schools centenary in 1985 that almost every member of the New Zealand Army, past and present, has been touched in some way by the efforts of the Army Schools. This continues today, but the reach not only touches Army students, but many of our Defence Force colleagues as well.
The Army Schools’ Crest and Motto
The Crest
During his period of office as Governor General (1910—1912) the Rt Hon John Poynder Dickson-Poynder, KCMG, Lord Islington, DSO, granted permission to General Headquarters, NZ Army for his family crest to be used as the badge for the Senior Cadet Officers. In 1921 when the Senior Cadet Officers were absorbed into the Territorial Infantry Regiments the use of the badge lapsed.
In 1927-28 the badge was brought into use by the GHQ Training Depot, Trentham. In 1932 the badge was used in the first wing of the Regular Force Recruits and its use was continued with subsequent wings. Approval for the badge to be reserved as the Training Depot badge was given on 25 November, 1933. In May 1936, as there was no official record of Lord Islington having granted permission for the use of his crest, his consent to the use of it as a badge for Regular Force recruits was sought and obtained.
After World War II, Regular Force recruits at the Army School of Instruction wore the badge until actually posted to corps—a custom which lasted until 1950.
When the Regular Force Cadet Unit was formed at The Army School of Instruction in 1948, its members wore the Dickson Crest. Until this time it had always been in brass, but when the cadets provided their first Guard of Honour their badges were chromium plated, and from this time forward the cadets wore a silver crest while other recruits continued to use the brass one.
In 1952 it was felt that while the badge was given to the Cadet Unit and could well remain as their badge, it could at the same time be used as the crest for Army Schools as a whole, since the Cadet Unit was the most permanent unit of Army Schools. This proposal was adopted, but the distinction in colour still remained. As used by Army Schools, the LOTC badge today remains in gold.
The crest may be seen as a portion of Lord Islington’s Coat of Arms hanging in the main entrance hall of Government House, Wellington.
The Motto
Underneath the Dickson Crest sits a scroll bearing the motto ‘FORTES FORTUNA JUVAT’. This frequently quoted proverb comes from the writings of the Younger Pliny (A.D. circ 61—114).
The proverb in this form can be found in Pliny’s Epistles where Pliny described the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79 to his friend Tacitus.
Pliny’s uncle, Pliny the Elder, was at the nearby dockyards when the eruption began and he went to sea to make scientific observations and take notes. He received a message that friends of his in a villa under the mountain were in danger, and were cut off from all retreat except by sea.
As he drew nearer to his destination and increasing volcanic debris afflicted his journey, Pliny is said to have cried out, ‘fortes fortuna juvat!’ - “Fortune assist the brave.”
There are more than twenty Latin and five Greek variations of the proverb.
The phrase means that Fortuna, the Goddess of luck, is more likely to help those who take risks or action.