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CPO(SCC) J.Sutton (Ex RN) Communications Instructor/Examiner and BCU Level 1 Coach
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History of the Sea Cadet Corps

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The Corps has the longest continuous history of any youth organisation in the country, but like every British institution it has evolved haphazardly. A few of the landmarks in its long development are summarised here.

1856

Sailors returning from the Crimean War started up 'Naval Lads Brigades' in Whitstable and other ports. By the turn of the century there were 'Brigs' and 'Brigantines' in several towns.

1910

The Navy League, a pressure group formed in 1895 with the aim of influencing maritime thinking in parliament and reminding the country of its naval history and dependence on the sea, decided also to sponsor a small number of these independent units as the Navy League Boys Naval Brigade. This slowly expanded with the addition of other formations such as Sea Scout groups.

1914

The Navy League applied to the Admiralty for recognition of its 34 Naval Brigades. This was granted in 1919 subject to an annual efficiency inspection by an Officer on the staff of the Admiral Commanding Reserves, and the title Navy League Sea Cadet Corps was adopted. There were five other Sea Cadet Corps, all much smaller.

1937

Lord Nuffield gave £50,000 to fund the expansion of the Corps.

1939

At the beginning of the war there were nearly 100 units with some 10,000 cadets.

1942

The Navy League's 1941 scheme for training Sea Cadets in TS BOUNTY for service in the wartime Navy caught the Admiralty's imagination. The Admiral Commanding Reserves took over the training role from January 1942, HM King
George VI became Admiral of the Corps, Officers were granted appointments in the RNVR and the Corps was renamed The Sea Cadet Corps. A huge expansion to 400 units and 50,000 cadets coincided in many towns with 'Warship Weeks' so that the newly formed unit took the same name as the adopted warship. The Admiralty now paid for uniforms, equipment, travel and training while the Navy League funded sport and Unit Headquarters. Thousands of 'Bounty Boys' progressed into the Navy as communications ratings, many returning to their units after the war ended.
In the same year, the Girls Naval Training Corps was formed as part of the National Association of Girls' Corps, with units mainly in Southern England.

1943

All units were given unit numbers in alphabetical order, from "1 Aberdare" to "357 York". Thereafter all units were numbered in sequence as they were affiliated to the Navy League, reading 399 by the end of the war.

1947

The Admiralty offered to take over the Sea Cadet Corps entirely. The Navy League disagreed but suggested it continue its co-sponsorship of the Sea Cadet Corps as during the war. The conditions were now embodied in an agreement with the Navy League, known as the Sea Cadet Charter. Amongst other items it undertook to support a maximum of 22,000 cadets, to supply uniforms, boats, training facilities, travel expenses and limited pay to adult staff who retained their appointments in the RNVR (and in the later reorganisation of the RNR). The Sea Cadet Council was
set up to govern the Corps with membership from the Navy League and the Royal Navy, and a retired Captain took on the task of supervision, first as Secretary to the Council and later as Captain, Sea Cadet Corps. From the same date the GNTC expanded throughout the country. By the late 1950s there were more than 50 units and the name was changed to the Girls Nautical Training Corps.

1955

The Commandant General, Royal Marines asked permission to form a Marine Cadet Section which could be fitted into an existing organisation and the Council agreed to this. By 1964 the section had expanded from its original 5 detachments to 40. By 1992, 75 units had Marine Cadet Detachments whose training is similar to the Army Cadet Force.

1962

It was proposed to amalgamate the three Girls Corps into one national body, to be called the Girls Venture Corps. The Girls Nautical Training Corps, not wishing to lose its naval identity, asked the Navy League to take over its sponsorship and in 1963 it was affiliated to the Sea Cadet Corps, in many cases sharing the same premises with local units.

1976

The Navy League was renamed the Sea Cadet Association since support of the Sea Cadets and GNTC had now become its sole aims. At the end of the year the title of Admiral Commanding Reserves lapsed and his functions, including responsibility for the Sea Cadet Corps, were transferred to the Commander-in-Chief Naval Home Command (CINCNAVHOME) in Portsmouth. The Charter was revised and replaced by a Memorandum of Agreement, which is reviewed every two years.

1980

On 31st March the Ministry of Defence (Navy) approved the admission of girls into the Sea Cadet Corps within the overall ceiling of numbers. The Girls Nautical Training Corps ceased to exist as a seperate body and its units were admitted to the Sea Cadet Corps to form Girls Nautical Training Contingents in a number of units. This number, originally set at 120, was raised to 150 in 1983 and then, in 1986, all limits to Contingent numbers were removed by the Admiralty Board and replaced by a limit of 35% of girls in the Corps overall. By late 1991 over 300 units contained girls.

1992

The successful integration of the boy and girl cadets and their adult staff over the previous eleven years led to the logical step of discontinuing the seperate GNT Contingents from 1st January. Sea Cadets, male or female, now enjoyed identical training; adult Sea Cadet staff, male and female enjoyed the same opportunities, insignia, rank nomenclature and pay. In its Golden Jubilee year under this title, the Sea Cadet Corps numbered some 400 units once more (including the Malta unit) with a rising membership of around 16,000. Sea Cadet Headquarters also retained a supervisory role over 3 units in Bermuda and one in the Falkland Islands and maintained friendly links with Commonwealth Corps founded in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Hong Kong, and others in Sweden, Holland, Belgium, Germany and the USA.

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