The world knows Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum today as the UAE Vice-President and Ruler of Dubai. But few remember that before he became a visionary leader, he was the world’s youngest Minister of Defence.
The rigorous training he underwent at the “prison-like” Mons Officer Cadet School in the UK is a rare story now brought to life in a 10-minute documentary released this week.
Launched on the 20th anniversary of The Mohammed bin Rashid Centre for Leadership Development, the event saw three of Sheikh Mohammed’s original training officers make an appearance in a nostalgic reunion.
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The film features historians and officers narrating several inspiring anecdotes of the young Arab officer who was promised “no special treatment”.
In one such incident, Sheikh Mohammed told one of the officers, Sgt Major Benny, that he could hit a target from a distance of 800 metres.
“Sgt Major Benny said, ‘Officer Cadet Rashid, that is absolute balderdash.’ Sheikh Mohammed picked up his rifle, boom, right in the middle,” said British historian Graeme Wilson.
Relating the same incident, Col David Brooks said: “He had done one shot, zeroed his rifle, and put the next five in the same hole, virtually. I said to him, ‘Mohammed, tell me, where did you learn to shoot like that?’”
“And he said, ‘Oh, my father was very strict with us, and I find that these things you don’t forget about.”
Take a look at Sheikh Mohammed then and now:
“Sheikh Mohammed always had that essence, the essence you see today, the essence that made him the youngest Minister of Defence in the world, the essence that allowed him to go through months of that tough training,” said Wilson in the opening shots of the film.
In yet another incident, 400 cadets were dropped into the middle of the Brecon Beacons (a mountain range in the Wales) and were given an hour.
“After an hour, there were a hundred so-called enemy [soldiers] that were sent in there to hunt these cadets down… and capture them. At the end of the exercise, there were two platoons, 16 men out of 400 who hadn’t been caught, and Sheikh Mohammed led one of those platoons,” said Wilson.
Wilson said a British political agent had warned Sheikh Rashid that going to Mons is like going to prison. “It was that tough,” he said. But Sheikh Rashid laughed and responded: “Mohammed will endure it all.”
Col David Brooks said Sheikh Mohammed was the best officer cadet, but an overseas cadet had never been an under-officer at Mons [an appointment held by the most senior cadets]. “I had to take the decision that I was going to make the first overseas cadet an under-officer, a senior under-officer.
“Sheikh Mohammed arrived in my office, saluted and did all the right stuff, stamped in front of my desk… I said, ‘Mohammed, I’m making you senior under-officer.’ A big broad smile spread across his face.”
Lt Col Stapylton said: “He proved himself to be well worthy of getting the commission which he was going to get at the end.”
Watch the full video here: