Council of Military Education Committees of the Universities of the United Kingdom

COMEC as such came into being in 1919, though its origins lie in the formation of the Officers Training Corps (OTC) in 1908.

Widespread myth surrounds the formation of the OTC, occasioned by a history of the Victorian Volunteers which suggested, in an appendix, that all university Volunteer units transferred to the OTC on 1 September 1908. In fact, only eight universities formed OTCs in that year, although others would soon follow.

Army Order 297 issued on 10 November, officially recognised the first OTC Contingents as Edinburgh with Infantry, Artillery and Medical Units, Birmingham, Cambridge, Durham, Manchester, Oxford and Wales with Infantry Units, and newly- formed Belfast. Edinburgh’s Medical Unit had attended annual camp in August wearing OTC insignia and this gives rise to their optimistic claim to have been the founding OTC Contingent.

The role of the OTC was primarily to prepare undergraduates for commissioned service and to maintain a supply of well-educated officers to the Territorial Force. No one could have foreseen how vital this was to become when, in the early months of WW1, OTCs bore the brunt of training the large number of additional officers urgently required for the New Army.

From 1908, it was a statutory requirement that a host university had a 'Military Education Committee' (MEC - the usual but not universal title) comprising a mix of university and service representatives to oversee the operation of the OTC with particular regard to the balance between cadets' military and academic activities. Most universities that had Volunteer Companies or Batteries, already had a 'Military Committee' for that very purpose and merely had to adopt the new title.

During World War I, several aspects of the mobilisation, notably the treatment of OTC officers and cadets who enlisted for active service, had caused widespread dissatisfaction within OTCs: officers were treated as substantive 2nd Lieutenants regardless of their Territorial Force rank and cadets arriving at an Officer Cadet Battalion were treated as fresh recruits even if they held Certificate B.

To address this, and other issues, a meeting was held in Durham on 22-23 September 1919, attended by twenty-eight representatives from fifteen MECs and a representative from the War Office. At this meeting, it was resolved to form a ‘Central Organization of Military Education Committees’. COMEC was born.

Its functions were to be:

• To assist in the co-ordination of the work of the Universities and University Colleges in the study of National Defence.
• To secure for Military Science its due place among University studies and to promote the systematic instruction and training of candidates for commissions and, so far as may be desired by the Army Council and other authorities concerned, of Officers in the National Forces.
• For these purposes the Central Organization shall assist in the co-operation of the Universities and University Colleges with the Departments of State which administer the National Forces.

In broad terms, COMEC continued to function as envisaged in 1919 although its role expanded as University Air Squadrons were formed at Cambridge and Oxford in 1925 and many other universities in 1941 and later. University Royal Navy Units also came into being, starting with Aberdeen in 1967.

A significant change came in 1970 when the name was changed to ‘Council of Military Education Committees of the Universities of the United Kingdom’ in an effort to underline the fact that it was an advisory and co-ordinating body, rather than having an executive role.

By the end of the century, COMEC’s ‘Terms of Reference’ had evolved to:

• To co-ordinate and represent the views of MECs to the Ministry of Defence through the directorates for university service units of the Royal Navy, the Army and the Royal Air Force.
• To consider and deliberate upon matters of policy emanating from the directors of university service units and to advise the MOD DRFC and universities thereon.
• To assist in the co-ordination of the work of universities through their MECs and in particular to facilitate systematic instruction and training of candidates for commissions in the armed services as may be required by the MOD and to promote for these purposes the co-operation of the universities with the Ministry of Defence.
• To maintain liaison with the appropriate bodies concerned with Defence Studies and other relevant issues.

The role of COMEC continues in this vein to the present day.[2]

No. 11: Trustworthiness in Public Life by Onora O’Neill, and National Resilience and the Developing Civil-Military Relationship by David Omand, 2018

No. 10: COMEC Rejoinder. The Value of the University Armed Service Units by Dr. Patrick Mileham, 2017

No. 9: War in Peacetime. Ambiguous Warfare and the Resurgence of the Russian Military by Christopher Donnelly, 2017

No. 8: Air Power by Michael Graydon and Andrew Lambert, 2018

No. 7: The University Air Squadrons. Early Years 1920-39 by Clive Richards, 2016

No. 6: Britain's Maritime Future by Jeremy Blackham and Andrew Lambert, 2016

No. 5: Reshaping the British Nuclear Deterrent by Lord David Owen, 2015

No. 4: University Officers’ Training Corps and the First World War by Edward M. Spiers, 2014

No. 3: Leadership in Future Force 2020 by General Sir Richard Barrons, 2014

No. 2: The Conundrum of Leadership - Leadership in Government, Foreign Affairs, Defence and Society by Lord Owen, 2013

No. 1: University Service Units. What are they really for? by Dr. Patrick Mileham, 2012

• COMEC website