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Cadet training in British schools began in the 1860s. The usual reason advanced was fear of a French invasion. France especially under a new Bonaparte emperor (Napoleon III) was was still perceived as the principal enemy. Rossall School in Lancashire lays claim to the honour of establishing the first school cadet corps. Many of the first schools to have cadet programs were the public schools (private secondary) schools.
Let us not assume that military training for boys is peculiar to the old Soviet Bloc countries. The idea of preparing school children for war may in fact be the British cadet program, although HBC does not have avery complete understanding of the program yet. There may have been a German influence. Cadet training in British schools began in the 1860s. The usual reason advanced was fear of a French invasion. France especially under a new Bonaparte emperor (Napoleon III) was was still perceived as the principal enemy. Many of the first schools to have cadet programs were the public schools (private secondary) schools
The English program was functioning in England during World War I (1914-18). Presumably it was the genesis for cadet program in colonial countries like Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. We note the Cadet program during World War I.
We believe there are Cadet programs sponsored by Royal Air Force, the Royal Navy, the Army, and the Royal Marines. Here at the Farnham Grammar School we only see Army cadets (figure 1).
An important part of the cadet progam was a summer camp. I'm not sure about how this was organized. We note that the younger boys did the summer camp along with the older boys. This suggests that there was a required summer camp each year. I'm not sure when the summer camps began and how they evolved over the years. Nor do I know how many encampments there were. There were too many schools participating for there to be one single ebncanplent. Thus there must have been several regional sencamplents. I'm not sure about the cirrent situation. We have no details on the camp program, but there would have been calesthetivs, incpecions, drill, field exercises, map reading, signals, and presumably rifelry.
We note Cadet programs at quite a number of English schools. Both private and state secondary schools had cadet programs.
The School had an active cadet group. These cadet groups were quite common at both private and state secondary schools. The program was like Junior ROTC in American schools, but much more common. A substatial part of the school participated. None of the junior boys were cadets, because of the age limit. The boys wore a military uniform with a beret. The school portrait here mist have been taken on a Friday which was Combined Cadet Force parade day. This is the only school portrait showing the CCF. Presumbably the other photos were not taken on Friday. The CCF was an optional school activity. The boys did not have to participate. I am not sure what drew so many boys to participate in the CCF
The Harrow County School was one of the largest state school CCFs and fielded army, navy and air force sections, as can be seen by the uniforms. We have a picture of
the Harrow County School CCF warrant officers/NCOs from the mid-1960s. Note the peaked caps.
Rossall School in Lancashire lays claim to the honour of establishing the first school cadet corps.
The uniforms that the boys and now girls wear appear to be basic issue British military uniforms. A destinctive element of the uniform in the image here is the beret. Note how differently the boys at Farnham Grammar School wear it (figure 1). I'm surprised that there was not a uniformity here enforced by the officers.
Notice the adult advisers in the image of Farnham Grammar School (figure 1). I think that they were staff members who took on this responsibility in addition to other teaching duties.
We do not have detailed information on the activities conducted by the Cadet program. Certainly drill is one of them. One British contributor reports, "I was trained at school from the age of 13 in military skills, including combat training, firing automatic weapons etc. although not compulsory, pressure was applied by the school to conform and few demurred. This was in Britain in the mid 1970s and is still going on."Some units have bands, but we have few details about this.
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