Your job is to be ready to fight and win battles, head of Army tells newest officers
There is an "absolute clarity to your purpose", the head of the Army has told the latest cohort of officers.
The Chief of the General Staff, General Sir Roly Walker, made the comments at the latest Sovereign's Parade at Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.
The Sovereign's Parade is held three times a year, and the latest marked the end of 44 weeks of intensive training for the outgoing 238 officer cadets.
Hundredth mixed cohort
Those passing out on Commissioning Course 253 were the 100th integrated intake at the military academy – which is when platoons are made up of both males and females.
It was a full circle moment for their inspecting officer, Gen Sir Roly, who was in the very first integrated intake 33 years ago.
He told those on parade: "It feels like yesterday that I walked up those steps to the tunes of Auld Lang Syne.
"I promise you, that [with] everything that I know now, if someone was to take me back to the start and give me my time again, I would go there without hesitation and do it all again."
He jokingly added: "When I say all of it... perhaps I'd ask the commandant for a buy on the first five weeks!"
Turning to a more serious tone, he went on to say it was a "very consequential time" for the officer cadets to be starting their careers.
Gen Sir Roly said the world he and his contemporaries commissioned into three decades ago "was very different".
"This is a time when collective defence and security becomes a national and an international effort," he said. "Where investment in the Armed Forces is replacing disinvestment where your operations, activities and deployments will be done under the banner of real deterrence and hard defence.
"And where there is an absolute clarity to your purpose, which is to be ready to fight and win the nation's battles, which we can. And we have done this before."
A first for Finland
The global landscape the officer cadets will soon operate in was embodied by the 40 international cadets who were part of the cohort, made up from 31 countries, including Ukraine.
Finland, which joined Nato in 2023, was also represented by the nation's first-ever officer cadet at Sandhurst, Roni Nokelainen.
Speaking to BFBS Forces News, he said: "Getting the honour and responsibility from my country, and to represent my country, that's the biggest honour you can get."
He said the most challenging part was to be away from home. "You don't get to see your close friends that much, but you obviously, you create such a bond, and new friendships in here," he explained.
Officer Cadet Nokelainen was the recipient of the Hodson's Horse Merit Award which is awarded to the international cadet who has produced an "overall performance of particular merit".
Being the first person from Finland to commission from the prestigious British military academy, Officer Cadet Nokelainen said he didn't really know what to expect.
"All I knew was [from] watching YouTube videos about the course and old documentaries," he admitted.
Keeping it in the family
Elsewhere on the parade square, traditions continued for two families in particular.
Karen Murdoch and Jan De Gale arrived at Sandhurst in January 1991, placed into the same platoon, having known each other from Oxford University Officers' Training Corps.
The friends later commissioned together and went on to have Army careers and later, families.
Karen joined the Royal Army Educational Corps, heading off to Germany for her first posting, while Jan served in the Royal Corps of Transport, which later became the Royal Logistic Corps, before coming back to Sandhurst as a platoon commander instructor.
Thirty-five years since they arrived at Sandhurst, they were back on the parade square, but this time both celebrating one of their children following in their footsteps.
Jan De Gale told BFBS Forces News: "We thought 'wouldn't it be funny if they were in the same company'? And not only were they the same company, but the same platoon, and actually the same section, I do believe."
Karen Murdoch added: "It's just amazing, just to relive it all, just that moment of going up those stairs.
"I'm particularly impressed because when we did it it was only six months because we were graduates and now they have to do a whole year.
"We had to use sticks – we didn't get given rifles on parade."
Opportunities – and a little bit of rebellion
Karen's daughter Kitty Murdoch, who will commission into The Blues and Royals of the Household Cavalry Regiment, said: "It's fantastic. It's not exactly something that I thought I'd be doing, but I am pleased to follow on, especially now, that I think a lot has changed."
Turning to her mum, Kitty added: "There weren't exactly many options for you to join when you were there, and now I'm here joining combat arms, so it's extra special really."
Officer Cadet Louis De Gale, who will commission into the Royal Engineers, said: "It's just very cool to come full circle."
Both officer cadets said the highlight was the bayonet course.
When asked why they wanted to come to Sandhurst, Officer Cadet De Gale noted the "opportunities, travel and working with interesting people".
For Officer Cadet Kitty Murdoch, however, there was a more rebellious motivation.
"My father told me not to," she said. "So I said 'that's exactly what I'm going to do'."
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