HISTORY OF THE ACF

The Army Cadet Force is one of the oldest youth organisations in the country, dating back to 1859-60. As can be expected of any organisation more than a hundred years old, its fortunes have varied considerably, and its progress to the present happy state of full acceptance and support has been erratic.

THE BEGINNING

The cadet movement is generally held to have started in the general alarm caused in 1859 by the expectation that France would invade this country. The British Army was in disarray in the aftermath of the Crimean War and the Indian Mutiny, and the Government launched the Volunteer Force with a call for 100,000 recruits to be raised and organised on a territorial basis.  

The poet Laureate took up his pen and called the volunteers into being with the famous poem “Riflemen Form”. The effect was dramatic. Within a month one hundred thousand men had joined the new Volunteers and armed by the Government started to train. The Cadets followed shortly afterwards. In 1860 at least eight schools had formed volunteer companies for their senior boys/masters and a few volunteer units had started their own Cadet companies. Typical of these were the Queen’s Westminster’s who placed their company of thirty five Cadets at the head of the parade when they marched past Queen Victoria at the review of her Volunteer at Hyde Park in 1860. 

Time passed and with it the threat of invasion but the Cadets continued. Many social reformers, who had the welfare of children at heart, saw the Cadet movement as a means of rescuing boys from the appalling conditions in which so many of them lived. Among the most famous of these pioneers was Miss Octavia Hill. She realised that Cadet training was important for character building and was a valuable instrument in the general upbringing of boys.

No one could accuse her of being a militarist but she formed her Southwark Company in order to introduce the boys of the East London slums to the virtues of order, cleanliness, team work and self-reliance. Her thoughts were always for the betterment of the individual. The present conception of the Army Cadet Force as a voluntary youth organisation, helped and inspired by the Army, really stems from that time and has continued throughout the ACF’s history. 

These early cadets were not made official until 1863 when Volunteer Force regulations gave authority for all volunteer battalions to raise cadet companies. Military instruction was to be given, and it seems that the sole object was to provide pre-service training for boys who would automatically join the volunteers when they reached the prescribed age. 

The Volunteers disbanded in 1908 and were replaced by the Territorial Force. An Officers Training Corps was started for universities and public schools, and many cadet units at these establishments merged into this corps. Other units were formed into the Territorial Cadet Force. The Church Lads’ Brigade which joined the cadet movement in 1911 became the largest single group within the Force, having some 30,000 cadets. 

There was a big expansion in the cadet force during the 1914-18 war, and many additional units, some based on large firms, and were raised in Durham. 

THE MIDDLE YEARS

After the 1914-18 war the cadet movement encountered difficulties. Faced with an economic crisis in 1924, the Government slashed public expenditure, and such grants as the cadet forces had were withdrawn. Some companies of The Boys' Brigade, which had been part of the cadet movement since 1917, left the movement but the Church Lads’ Brigade remained. The Boys' Brigade was formed in 1883 in Glasgow to hold the interest of Boys in the Church. Similarly, the Church Lads’ Brigade had been formed in 1891 for Anglican Churches only. Small grants to cadets were restored in 1925, but by this time many units had closed down. Others continued, but received another blow in 1930 when government recognition was withdrawn, and the British National Cadet Association was formed as a private body to provide a focal point for units able to carry on with private support. Few non-school units were left, however, when recognition (but not grants) was restored two years later. In 1936 the Church Lads' Brigade left the cadet movement, faced with the choice of being governed by their own leaders or the BNCA it had little choice. In 1939 it was decided that all commissions required previous service in the ranks, and the Officers' Training Corps in schools and universities became known as ‘The Junior Training Corps’. 

The cadet movement received a severe battering in the 1930s. It was depleted in numbers but high in spirit, and in the face of all difficulties it retained a foundation upon which to build the structure, which was to come.

WAR

The early months of the 1939‑45 war were a matter of ‘shadow boxing’. This period of the 'Phoney War' (as it became known) ended with stunning suddenness when the enemy launched the blitzkrieg. In a matter of weeks nearly all Europe, from Norway to the South of France, was under German occupation. The analogy with 1860 was inescapable: the Army in disarray and the threat of the invasion immanent. 1860 brought about the birth of the cadet movement: 1940 was to bring about its expansion to undreamed of heights. 

The expansion was ordered in 1941 and was put in hand by County Territorial Associations. Units sprang up almost overnight, many of them based on boys' clubs, which provided recruits, premises and sometimes leaders in one package. There was a great air of improvisation in the early days, and some units were virtually private armies. The title 'Cadet Force' was changed to 'Army Cadet Force' and Officers were commissioned by Lord Lieutenants.  

Everything had to be provided by privately raised money and even the wearing of Regimental badges were forbidden. Fortunately a voluntary body known as the British National Cadet Association (BNCA) was formed to run the Cadet Force and regain its official recognition.  

In 1932, official recognition was restored and by 1936 certain services and small grants were provided but it took World War Two to make the War Office fully accept the Cadet Force again. In January 1942 there was another big expansion. The War Office took over the organisation, equipment and accommodation of the ACF. They also increased grants and free uniforms were authorised.  

Gradually this spirited but often unruly force was brought under closer control. Most Companies (as detachments were then called) were organised into battalions, often 800 to 1,000 strong. County Regiments, to which Battalions were badged, provided permanent staff instructors. Capitation grants had been introduced, and TA Associations put finance on a firm basis. Regular Army units with their war commitments could give little help with training (though permanent establishments such as Infantry Training Centres gave valuable assistance with camps and courses). The main professional support was provided by 'Travelling Wings', each consisting of about half a dozen officers, WO’s and NCOs drawn from a variety of units and arms. By 1944 the ACF had shaken down into a well‑organised body providing many recruits for the forces, a fairly high proportion of whom became officers and NCOs. 

In 1945 the BNCA became the Army Cadet Force Association (ACFA), which to this day deals with sport, welfare, competition shooting and many other aspects of the Army Cadet Force, which are not the direct concern of the Ministry Of Defence (MOD). They are also advisers to the MOD and other Government bodies on all matters connected with the ACF.

MATURITY 

At the end of the war, the ACF was tremendously strong and in great heart. Many officers wondered whether the historical repetition of expansion would be followed by the repetition of cuts. Sighs of relief were heard in 1947, when the Government announced its plans for the reconstitution of the Territorial Army and at the same time affirmed its support for the ACF. Over the next ten years the movement shed some of its size and slimmed down into a more streamlined and effective body. The Junior Training Corps in schools became the Combined Cadet Force, and a hundred ACF school units transferred to it. Some open companies closed and some of the older leaders who had given fine service retired. Permanent staffs were appointed at county levels, and the War Office decided that now was the time to chart the future. The Amery Committee was appointed to review the ACF in 1957, and it was clear beyond doubt that the future was assured.  

The Centenary of the ACF was celebrated in 1960 with the chief event being a presentation of a Banner to the Force by HRH the Duke of Edinburgh at the Tower of London. During this year the Banner was passed from unit to unit and county to county throughout the United Kingdom. The Banner is now housed at the Cadet Training Centre, Frimley Park. Time does not stand still and it was obvious, towards the end of the decade that the ACF should once again be looked at carefully. Consequently the Army Board decided in 1969 to set up a review committee for the purpose of examining the aim, training, administration and equipment of the ACF. The report of this Committee was published in January 1971 and was the Blue Print for the ACF in the 1970’s. Since that review more changes were made to the ACF such as the development of a Cadet version of the Regular Army Rifle, the SA80, and the introduction of female Cadets into the ACF in 1984. 

The ACF is now operating at over 50,000 cadets in over 1700 detachments throughout the UK.   It has developed it’s training to meet modern education criteria and now works alongside the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme and CVQO BTEC Awards allowing its members the opportunity to gain additional qualifications.