Britain's most senior soldier has launched an international appeal for cash to help maintain "the fabric" of historic buildings, pictures and collections at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, because the defence budget pays only for the core training and education of aspiring officers.

General Sir Richard Dannatt, Chief of the General Staff, has sent letters and e-mails to serving and former Army officers asking them to contribute to the Sandhurst Foundation to preserve privately owned parts of the world's most famous school for future commanders.

In his letter, Sir Richard says: "It is increasingly evident that maintenance of the fabric, chattels, artefacts, some presentational aspects of the Royal Memorial Chapel, the Sandhurst historical collection, and the decoration and presentational standard of some of the historical rooms at the academy will be beyond that which we can expect the public purse to maintain."

The items needing maintenance include memorials in the Indian Army Room, which contains the names of more than 27,000 of those killed in two world wars; the academy's chapel, the biggest royal chapel apart from Westminster Abbey and St George's Chapel, Windsor, and various donated collections of weapons, paintings, uniforms and battlefield souvenirs.

Sir Richard has already persuaded King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa of Bahrain, a Sandhurst "old boy", to become patron of the appeal.

All British Army officers as well as many from elsewhere in the world are trained at Sandhurst. Nearly 10% of British cadets are female and another 10% come from overseas.

The current academy opened in 1947 in the former Royal Military College at Sandhurst, although it is only the latest in a 200-year line of "officer factories" on or near the site which have equipped the Army's future leaders for two world wars and an endless succession of lesser conflicts.

Its stated aim is to be "the national centre of excellence for leadership".

Unlike some other national military academies such as West Point in the United States, the Pakistan Military Academy, the National Defence Academy (India) or the Australian Defence Force Academy, Sandhurst is not a university. Eighty-five per cent of entrants are university graduates, but this is not a requirement.

Both Prince William and Prince Harry - one a graduate and the other not - have completed training there.

Sandhurst also has renowned academic departments staffed by civilian lecturers. The noted academics John Keegan and Richard Holmes were both members of its faculty.

The main Sandhurst commissioning courses start in January, May and September of each year. Each intake numbers approximately 270 cadets, each of whom joins a cadet company. The British Army needs about 650 new junior officers a year.

The commissioning course is split into three terms, each lasting 14 weeks, and on each course cadets are put into companies commanded by a major and named after a famous battle in which the British Army has fought.