Founded in 1925, our institute has a fascinating history which is inextricably linked to the UK RUSI. The London based RUSI roots can be traced back to the nineteenth century when the Duke of Wellington presented his vision of the Institute.

In 1829, at the age of 62 and in between terms as Prime Minister, the Duke proposed that a “United Services Museum” be established. His idea was that it should be managed by naval and military officers and serve as a central repository for literature, weaponry and artifacts associated with Britain’s military and naval history. The concept had the King’s blessing, to the effect that it would serve as “a strictly scientific and professional society and not a club”. The museum opened in 1831 as the Naval and Military Museum, with a name change in 1839 to the United Services Institution. The Royal prefix was added in 1860 and the name was changed again in 2004 to its present Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies.

In its early years the British RUSI was situated in Whitehall Yard and boasted nine rooms, including a library, a reading room, a map room, a lecture hall, and three galleries displaying British, American, Oriental, African and European artifacts, weapons and military models. One such model portrayed the last hours of the Battle of Waterloo, complete with 70,000 tin-lead soldiers.

Among the museums other treasures were swords belonging to Oliver Cromwell and General Wolfe, part of the deck from Lord Nelson’s flagship, the Victory, the skeleton of Marengo, Napoleon’s horse at Waterloo, relics from the Franklin expedition, Sir Francis Drake’s walking stick and Captain James Cook’s chronometer.

The first Commonwealth United Services Institution was established in India in 1870, followed by Australia in 1888. Now called the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies – Australia, it has a federation of independently constituted Royal United Services Institutes in the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia. The Aussies continue to act faster and more aggressively than us Canadians.

Canada came next, with the founding of the Canadian Military Institute in 1890. The founding principle when it was established in 1890 was as follows: “to provide in an Institute for the defence forces of Canada a Library, museum and club for the purposes of the promotion of military art, science and literature, to gather and preserve the records of the defence forces and develop its specialized field in Canadian history.”

Our sister organizations across the country were established in the decades following RCMI’s opening, with the Western Canada Military Institute being established in 1910, changing its name to the United Services Institute of Manitoba in1946, and again in 1997 to its present Royal Military Institute of Manitoba. The USI of Edmonton followed in 1912, followed by The Regina USI in 1919, the Alberta Military Institute in 1920 later becoming The Alberta USI, The USI Vancouver Society in 1921, our own Kingston USI in 1925, The London Ontario Military Institute and Vancouver Island USI in 1927, Nova Scotia USI in 1928 and Institut Militaire de Quebec in 1929. All but the latter of these were given the Royal prefix in the years after their founding. More recently we have seen the addition of The New Brunswick RUSI in 1972, RUSI Lethbridge, The RUSI Vancouver Island (North) Society in Nanaimo and The Conference of Defence Associations Institute in 1987.

There are now 27 organizations across Canada partnered with the United Services Institute, the remainder being military colleges and associations. All of the above are members of Canada’s Conference of Defence Associations.