The Bermuda Cadet Corps was a youth organisation in the Imperial fortress colony of Bermuda, sponsored originally by the War Office and the British Army. Modelled on the Cadet Corps in England, now organised as the Army Cadet Force and the Combined Cadet Force, it was organised separately under Acts of the Parliament of Bermuda. It was one of three Cadet Corps that historically operated in the British territory, with the others being the Bermuda Sea Cadet Corps (with the Girls Nautical Training Corps) and the Air Training Corps, of which only the Bermuda Sea Cadet Corps remains. After more than a century of existence, the Bermuda Cadet Corps was disbanded in 2013 and replaced by the resurrected Junior Leaders programme of the Royal Bermuda Regiment.
History
In 1901, Saltus Grammar School in Pembroke, raised a Cadet Corps (with Sergeant Major Bellmore as the first instructor), which was attached to the Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps (BVRC). On the 12 April 1901, the Officer Commanding Troops of the Bermuda Garrison received notification that the Governor and military Commander-in-Chief had appointed Captain R.W. Appleby of the BVRC to be a Captain with the Cadet Corps (dated 11 February). The Cadet Corps (Saltus Grammar School) often trained alongside the BVRC, as on the 24 May 1902, when the cadets assembled at Fort Hamilton before marching to the Army Service Corps Wharf at East Broadway, from whence they were driven to Warwick Camp to watch the riflery training of the BVRC. In 1905, the corps received a grant from the Government of Bermuda in order that other schools might join the scheme. At the same time, the corps was officially affiliated with the BVRC. On the 24 May 1907, the Cadet Corps was delivered, along with the Headquarters and "C" Companies of the BVRC, to St. George's to join the other two companies of the BVRC for their annual camp. The Cadet Corps was perceived by the Government as a valuable method by which to boost recruitment into the BVRC, which was struggling to maintain its mandated strength. It was thought that, following their early exposure to military service, many Cadets would choose to enlist into the BVRC upon finishing their schooling.
In 1907, the Cadet Corps was expanded with War Office approval to eight other schools in Bermuda, including civilian schools such as Whitney Institute, as well as the military garrison schools, and the Royal Naval Dockyard school. The expanded Cadet Corps remained attached to the BVRC, and its Cadets wore the BVRC cap badge. At the time, all of the schools included barred black students, and the Cadet Corps (like the BVRC, which originally recruited from private rifle clubs, none of which admitted coloured members) was consequently made up of whites only. This was despite Lieutenant-General Sir Robert MacGregor Stewart, Royal Artillery, Governor of Bermuda from 1904 to 1907, having reported on 24 July, 1906, to the Secretary of State for the Colonies that the Colonial Secretary of Bermuda had advised in the Executive Council against forming a cadet corps for white boys that excluded coloured boys.
There was a second part-time military unit in Bermuda, the Bermuda Militia Artillery, which recruited primarily coloured soldiers, although its officers were all white until 1953.
In 1930, the Labour Government disassociated Cadet Corps in Britain from the Government, but this was reversed by the succeeding Government in 1931, which placed them again under War Office control. The Bermuda Cadet Corps was affiliated with the National Cadet Corps in Britain in 1931 at the request of the Command Headquarters of the Bermuda Garrison.