With the end of World War II and the establishment of the British Army on the Rhine as part of the Allied occupation of Germany, personnel were allowed to bring their families over through "Operation Union".
This presented a problem for the War Office as these children needed to attend school.
LEAs were asked to aid in the recruitment of teachers to the newly opened schools in Germany.
Over the years, the BFES and its later incarnations opened schools at British Armed Forces bases around the world, such as in Hong Kong, Singapore, Cyprus, Malta, Gibraltar, Mauritius and Malaya.
During the early 1970s, BFES became the Service Children's Education Authority, an agency overseen by the British Army.