THE NIGERIAN MILITARY SCHOOL was established on 20 May 1954 with an initial intake of thirty Boys known as the “First Platoon”. At inception, the school was named Boys Company of Nigeria, and the First Platoon was divided into 4 Houses, namely Exam, Inglis, Fairbanks, and Swynuerton. However, its history can be traced to 1951 when the idea of establishing “Boys Company” along the same pattern of the Boys Wing of the British Army was conceived for each of the four British West African colonies namely the Gambia, Gold Coast (Ghana), Nigeria and Sierra Leone. The aim was to inculcate and encourage family tradition in the force, hence the bulk of the pioneer set were sons and wards of serving military personnel.

In May 1954, the Boys Company was established as a full-fledged training institution under the regimentation and administration of the defunct Nigerian Regimental Training Company (NRTC) now Depot NA under the Command of Captain WU Bassey, the first Nigerian commissioned military officer. Two years later, the student population rose to 2000.