Ethos and Beliefs

Ethos - Why Bother?
Difficult and unique tasks require certain personal characteristics, which are nurtured at the Commando Training Centre and then maintained and developed in service. It is because of these individual qualities that we are able to fulfill our collective role successfully. This forms our ethos.

RM Corps History and the Commando Role:
Our Commando role is relatively recent, dating back to Winston Churchill’s wartime demand for the raising of raiding forces to harass the Nazi-occupied Europe after the evacuation of Dunkirk in 1940. Our symbol of the Globe and Laurel remains appropriate because, like our ancestors, we must be prepared to fight and win, anywhere in the world.
The difference now is the way we fight – the Commando role – exemplified by the Commando dagger that is now our formation flash.

The four elements of Commando Spirit; courage, determination, unselfishness, and cheerfulness in the face of adversity, are well-known to all recruits by the time they complete Commando training. But these constituents of the ‘Commando Spirit’ are what make us individual ‘commandos’.
What shapes the way we then work as a team, giving the Royal Marines its special identity, the way we carry out our duties, is a second set of group values laid out below.

They should seem quite familiar. It is the combination of individual Commando Spirit qualities, coupled with these group values, that together forms our Royal Marines ethos.
Royal Marines Ethos = Individual Commando Spirit + Collective Group Values
Courage, Unity, Determination, Adaptability, Unselfishness, Humility, Cheerfulness, Professional Standards, Fortitude, Commando Humour.