Royal Military College of Canada Museum

Royal Military College of Canada Museum

Established	1962
Location	Fort Frederick on the campus of the Royal Military College of Canada
Website	http://www.rmc.ca/cam/mus/index-eng.asp

The Royal Military College of Canada Museum, established in 1962, is located in the Martello Tower of Fort Frederick on the campus of the Royal Military College of Canada at the CFB Kingston, in Kingston, Ontario.

Fort Frederick (Kingston) is a 1790 fortification consisting mostly of earthworks (engineering) with a North wall of stone masonry. It is on the Registry of Historic Places of Canada . It contains one of the Martello Towers, built by Corps of Royal Engineers in 1846 which houses the RMC museum. It was named in honour of Frederick, Prince of Wales.

Between 1922 and 1946, the RMC collections consisted merely of arms and military artefacts collections raised, built and maintained by individuals or very small groups of veterans. Although these items were interesting, there was no overall, coordinated story.

The museum's mandate is to collect, conserve, research and display material relating to the history of the RMC, achievements of its former cadets and the earlier naval history of its site, the Point Frederick Dockyard. The museum, which is housed in the Fort Frederick Martello Tower, contains collections of military memorabilia and 7000 artefacts, including a collection of 16th through 20th century arms, uniforms, flags, military art and trophies. It holds, for example, the Douglas Arms Collection which was presented to RMC by Walter Douglas (RMC 1890) and the Leinster Plate of the Prince of Wales's Leinster Regiment. A model of the 112-gun HMC St. Lawrence was donated in 2008. The Royal Military College of Canada Museum Colouring Book features the RMC mascot, a white bear with RMC pillbox hat and scarlett tunic. The lower floor of the Martello Tower contains exhibits on the War of 1812 and the fort’s dockyard. The main floor contains exhibits on the history of the college, and personal mementos of the Old Eighteen, the first class that enrolled in 1876. A gun platform displays the original cannons at the top of the tower. The museum is a member of the Canadian Museums Association and the Organization of Military Museums of Canada Inc. It is also accredited within the Canadian Forces Museum System. A cooperating association of friends of the museum has been formed to assist with projects. The Archives includes cartographic materials, prints and drawings, manuscripts and photographs. The human history consists of manuscripts, medals, military history and technology and weapons.

RMC's Panorama

Year	Significance
1918	Brigadier Charles N. Perreau, RMC Commandant 1915-19, indicated that he wanted to establish a museum at RMC. RMC started to collect artefacts in a piecemeal way. In 1918, Col. Charles N. Perreau requested a propeller on behalf of the RMC to the Commission on War Records and Trophies. “as a memoria of the many cadets we have sent to the RAF.”
1920	151 Major-General Sir Archibald Macdonell, RMC commandant 1919-25 gathered trophies he had addressed to RMC from the battlefields, and a few items from different sources. Maj.-Gen. Macdonell requested various War Trophies captured by the Canadian Corps be dispatched to RMC for disposal about the grounds and buildings in recognition of the record of the ex-cadets.
September 1922	A special army board met at RMC to look at the possibility of creating a museum in Fort Frederick, on RMC grounds. The conclusion was positive.
January 1926	Quartermaster General wrote to 621 Brigadier Charles Francis Constantine, DSO, RMC Commandant 1925-30 “It is the desire of National Defence Headquarters to make the museum at the Royal Military College the principal storehouse for military relics of all natures...” Although the army opened many museums from 1946 to 1964, the RMC Museum did not materialize.
February 1926	An inventory of RMC’s holdings, 12 pages of items, many of the 1914-1918 vintage, had been captured from the Germans.
1938	Walter Douglas (RMC 1890) donated the 430-piece collection of arms of the late General Porfirio Díaz, former President of Mexico to RMC. Most of these firearms, had little to do with RMC’s history.
1946	The packing cases left by Douglas had not yet been opened.
July 1946	RMC authorities decided to close the RMC museum. Today we would classify the first version of the RMC Museum as a mere historical collection. *Many artifacts contained in Fort Henry, a 19th Century citadel overlooking the RMC grounds were given to other military museums.
1957	The army published the Military Museums order which presented the parameters within which corps or unit army museums could be created, and described when and how these museums could access equipment or war trophies. Many army museums started to be officially recognized.
1960	The idea of reopening the RMC museum resurfaced. Douglas’s cases were finally opened, along with others containing the material that had been set aside in 1946.
25 June 1962	The new RMC Museum opened at its present location in the Martello Tower at Fort Frederick.
2007	The pool in the Fort Haldimand dormitory, which was closed in the mid-1990s, was filled in and covered with a concrete slab. The pool area was divided up into two stories and is now used for the Museum storeroom and other storage. |-

Affiliations

The Museum is affiliated with: CMA, CHIN, OMMC and Virtual Museum of Canada.