Royal Military Academy, Woolwich

The Royal Military Academy (RMA) 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.

History
The Royal Military Academy Woolwich was founded in 1741: it was intended to provide an education and produce "good officers of Artillery and perfect Engineers". RMA Woolwich was commonly known as "The Shop" because its first building was a converted workshop of the Woolwich Arsenal.

A larger building was specially designed for the Royal Military Academy by James Wyatt, built between 1796 and 1805 and opened for use the following year.

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 at Sandhurst (which had previously only trained officers for the Infantry and Cavalry) with the objective of providing officer training for all arms and services.

Durkan Group bought the Woolwich site by public tender in 2006. The Woolwich buildings have since been converted and extended into 334 houses and apartments, including 150 for a housing association.

Commandants
Commandants have included:


 * ?-1901 Major-General F. T. Lloyd, CB (Governor and Commandant)
 * 1901-? Major-General R. H. Jelf, CMG (Governor and Commandant)
 * 1912–1914 Brigadier-General Arthur Holland
 * 1914–1918 Major-General William Cleeve
 * 1918–1920 Major-General Geoffrey White
 * 1920–1924 Major-General Webb Gillman
 * 1924–1926 Major-General Ronald Charles
 * 1926–1930 Major-General Hugo De Pree
 * 1930–1934 Major-General Cyril Wagstaff
 * 1934–1938 Major-General Arthur Goschen
 * 1938–1939 Major-General Philip Neame

Notable teachers
Notable teachers at Woolwich include:
 * Sir Frederick Abel, appointed lecturer in chemistry in 1852
 * Peter Barlow, appointed assistant mathematics master in 1801 and who retained this post until 1847
 * Samuel Hunter Christie was mathematical assistant in 1806 and professor of mathematics, 1838-1854
 * Sir George Greenhill was professor of mathematics from 1876 to 1908
 * Paul Sandby was chief drawing master from 1768 to 1799