My time at Latimer House

LATIMER HOUSE – Memories of 2 years on the directing staff of the National Defence College. 

Peter McLoughlin gave a fascinating talk on the National Defence College and his time on the directing staff there.

He told us that Latimer House was acquired by the MOD in 1942 and for 3 years was used as the Combined Services Interrogation Centre.  Around 30 to 40 senior German officers at a time were held there and were interrogated and spied on by a group called The Listeners.

In 1947, following the acknowledgement that there was a need for senior service personnel to work better together, a Joint Services College was established which closed in 1970 and superseded in 1971 by The National Defence College. This ran from 1971 to 1983 and operated 10 month long courses for senior members of the armed services, civil service and UK and Hong Kong police.

Peter joined it in 1973 as a member of the directing staff which comprised himself, a wing commander and Lt Cols from the army and Royal Marines. Participants in the courses were known as “Cormorants” in recognition of the birds’ ability to fly go on land and in and under the water.

Peter’s main responsibility was to teach the MOD budget cycle and how funds were allocated. To assist in this it was agreed to adopt a US programme and to this end Peter spent a month training at the US Post Graduate School in Monterey.

Amongst the academic subjects taught at Latimer were International Relations and Decision Making.  The course however also included numerous visits to commercial and military sites before the students had to complete a thesis of between 5,000 and 7,000 words.  Amongst the visits that Peter recalled was participating in an army exercise with BAOR, piloting a jet provost trainer from RAF Brawdy, spending 8 hours in a Nimrod aircraft tracking Russian submarines and learning about the threat from the soviets with NATO.  He also sailed with the Navy from Gibraltar where he underwent a ship to ship transfer whilst the ship was refuelling, and a visit to a pit.  Whilst in Germany he went on an exercise to a mock up of a Northern Irish village where the participants were to patrol in eerie silence until doors opened to reveal what might be a mother and baby or a terrorist.  It made him realise what a strain it was to have to make an instant decision as to whether or not to shoot.

The course adapted to the needs of the time and in 1973, at the time of the energy crisis, emphasis was given for the need for energy security, something that is particularly relevant today.

As Peter arrived to start work on 13^th February 1974 he was greeted by the sound of a large explosion; this was from an IRA bomb which had been placed against the wall of the admin block.  Fortunately no-one was killed but a number of staff were injured, some seriously, in what tuned out to be the start of the IRA bombing campaign on the UK mainland.

In 1975, after 2 years at the college, Peter left to take up a posing at the British Embassy in Paris.

A vote of thanks was given by Tony Glyn-Jones.