College Life

The 'College Life' Section is an attempt to portray the training environment, which has evolved over the four distinct Eras of the RAF College's operations.

Anybody visiting the College to research its history almost certainly will be advised to explore the library of College Journals, the main College publication from 1920 to 2016 intended to: communicate the military, sports and social events that had occurred at the College; enlighten alumni on articles of interest; and promote the eprit de corps within the Cranwellian fraternity. It succeeded from the outset. In 1924, through the Journal, recently graduated College alumni proposed to set up an "Association Officers" that in July 1926 would become the Old Cranwellian Association. As the Cranwellian Association (CA), it survives to this day running Annual Reunions and maintaining contacts between some 600 members.

This 'College Life' Section also gives further privileged insight by republishing articles and videos that, through the years, have captured the environment within which the Cranwellian was trained.

During its first 100 years of operation, training at the RAF College evolved through four distinct eras, from the academic and flying training of officer cadets drawn from schools during 1920-1939 (Era 1), to basic and advanced flying training of UK and Overseas officers during the WWII years (Era 2), to the reversion to academic and specialist training of officer cadets and later Graduate Entrants between 1947 and 1979 (Era 3), and finally to the introduction of the Single Gate Initial Officer Training (SGIOT) initiative in 1978 for officer cadets of all branches under the IOT and IOT Schemes (Era 4). This page records some of the training statistics and events that characterise Graduate achievement and comaraderie that evolved between 1920 and 2019.

In 2018, we were able to scan and reproduce extracts of main articles and events that were printed in the College Journal between 1920 and 1987; scanning the remainder (appearing till the last issue in 2016) was suspended in 2019, pending an initiative to reproduce full versions of each Journal in a FlipBook format. Through the diligent efforts of Cranwellian Mike Smith (91 Entry) and support from the Cranwellian Association, the majority of Journals have been reproduced in FlipBook format with work ongoing to recover the remaining Journals.

The first thoughts of those reminded of Cranwell probably relate to the iconic College Hall Officers' Mess opend in 1934. It is the epitomy of what RAF personnel refer to as their 'Spiritual Home'. However, there are other buidings, past and present, that underpin the thoughts of those who still hold Cranwell and the RAF College in affection. This page presents some of the 'fabric' of the College environment that lingers long in the memories of RAF officers, whether serving or long since retired.