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Marine Society and Sea Cadets were well represented in the New Year’s Honours List.

MSSC Trustee John May DL (pictured) becomes an OBE for services to young people, while former trustee and current MSSC Vice-President Patrick Stewart MBE receives a CVO for his work as Lord Lieutenant of Argyll and Bute.

The recognition of Sea Cadet volunteers across the country remains one of the highlights of the Honours List.

While three volunteers have become recipients of British Empire Medals (BEM), Janice Spicer was made an MBE for her fund-raising efforts to many charities in her native Hull, including Sea Cadets.

Mrs Spicer, 65 and from Hull, joined as a teenager when girls were first admitted in the late 1960s.

After coming back the following week, Janice remained for a near-continuous 50 years period. “My dad wasn’t sure. He huffed that it would be another “week-long wonder” but I knew different,” she said.

21 members of Janice’s family are now Sea Cadets and despite severe illness in her family, she remains as committed to the Sea Cadet cause as ever.

“I had good role models in a nan who brought up kids on their own and my mum’s sister who would take everyone from their street on train for a day’s holiday. If I’m as good an Aunty as our Aunty Madge. I’m doing all right. Sea Cadets in a way are my family and this is for them as much as anyone else.”

Emma Walton BEM from Grimsby has been honoured for community and voluntary service in helping her local Sea Cadets,

Since getting involved within Sea Cadets in 2015, Emma has helped recruit a new set of trustees, refurbish and sign a 99 year lease on their building near the Royal Dock, launch a major recruitment drive for both cadets and volunteers, develop partnerships with local businesses and charities as well as raise over £70,000 within four years to secure the future of Grimsby and Cleethorpes Sea Cadets.

All of this, in spite of being a mother of three which was added to by the arrival of Emma and her husband’s fourth child three years ago. She is also chair of Lincolnshire District Sea Cadets and helps to train new chairs across the East of England.

“I do it because I enjoy it. I’ve made so many friends and when my eldest daughter joined, I started helping out tidying up the unit. “I didn’t really know what I was letting myself in for, when I became Chair.”

Lieutenant Commander George Wilson, London Region HQSO as well as Chief Petty Officer Stefen Wells from Shirley also received BEMs for sterling work in their communities.

Sea Cadets' 2019 awards have been released!

The awards are for the units, cadets and volunteers who have performed admirably throughout 2019. There are lots of winners across the Corps, but highlights include:

Salisbury (pictured) unit took home The Canada Trophy, awarded to Sea Cadets unit which is considered to have attained the very highest standard of all-round efficiency in the previous year. Each volunteer and cadet at Salisbury will receive a medallion to commemorate the event and cadets will also receive a red or gold maple leaf and a year badge, which are to be sewn on to their uniform. Salisbury have excelled at boating in the last year, averaging 145 hours of boating per cadet and all their cadets received at least one boating qualification!

Scarborough won the Thomas Grey Memorial Trophy, in their centenary year. With around 100 cadets and 40 volunteers, the numbers illustrate how popular this unit is within the remote community. Scarborough Cadets lead from the front at the Duke of Edinburgh award events, and always do well at promotion boards, plus many of them achieved CVQO BTEC qualifications this year.

The Commander Brown Trophy was handed to POC Daniel from Weymouth, for outstanding achievement, excelling at Sea Cadets, gaining multiple qualifications over the year and conquering his DofE. POC Daniel works hard at Sea Cadets to ensure he picks up qualifications, already having DofE Bronze and Silver awards and is working towards his Gold. He also holds British Rowing Supervised Coxswain, Basic Navigation, RYA Watchleader (Power-24m TS John Jerwood/TS Jack Petchey) Meteorology Proficiency, Basic Piping and Intermediate Seamanship, Advanced Stewarding, and Basic CIS.

Captain Rodie Casement Sword was awarded to Lt (SCC) William Elliott RNR from Milford Haven Unit. William embraces and embodies the Core Values and his drive to inspire these in his cadets is infectious. His commitment to the Corps is tireless endless, attending the unit despite other calls on his time.

Sea Cadets played a full part in welcoming the Royal Navy’s largest warship to the Fleet in Portsmouth.

As part of 2,000 invited guests and in the presence of His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales and Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cornwall as Lady Sponsor, the cadets helped support the commissioning of HMS Prince of Wales in a rousing ceremony in Portsmouth.

Commanding Officer, Captain Darren Houston, read the commissioning warrant to the ship’s company and guests gathered in the hangar, with the First Sea Lord, Admiral Tony Radakin as well as Marine Society and Sea Cadets President Admiral Sir Mark Stanhope GCB OBE DL and CEO Martin Coles.

The First Sea Lord’s Sea Cadets plus members of Greenwich Sea Cadets were in attendance to give the invited guests a glimpse of the long-standing relationship between the Royal Navy and Sea Cadets.

The First Sea Lord’s Sea Cadets aged 16 to 17, are picked, from each area to represent the Sea Cadets at many different events.  They also play a crucial role in shaping the future of Sea Cadets as the voice of the cadets.

The cadets act as escort to Navy Board members or other senior Royal Navy officers at appropriate functions such as formal parades, ship visits and presentations.

How my time spent as a Sea Cadet has shaped my career leading a large team. Read Claire’s story.

Claire was a member of TS Queen Charlotte, Guildford Sea Cadets. As a cadet Claire achieved national success in kayaking and demonstrated a high degree of commitment and determination to pursuing the sport. She won seven national gold medals in total.

In life since, Claire has shown that same determination and commitment in her pursuit of professional development. Sea Cadets was instrumental to Claire starting her career in PR. At the time when she applied for the first job, she was down to the final two candidates and the other individual had a degree in PR. However, it was Claire who was successful in getting the job. The employers acknowledged her skills and experience as a cadet made her the more favourable candidate.

At interview Claire was asked to do a presentation on a topic of her choice and she spoke about the Sea Cadets which landed her the job. She was able to demonstrate transferrable skills through her activities supporting younger cadets and her voluntary charitable work through the cadets.

Claire continues to work in PR and now manages a large team of people in her work. She can still see the benefit of Sea Cadets in her daily professional life. Her ability to lead, take control and even project her voice were all developed during her time as a cadet on the parade ground. Claire can see how Sea Cadets gave her the practical communication skills that she uses every day to manage her team and get the job done. It’s amazing to hear her time as a PO cadet still influences her every day work.

Martin’s early years at Sea Cadets set him up with an international seafaring career, now he gives back whenever he can.

There are many mariners and seafarers who used to be in the Sea Cadets and there are countless inspirational stories. One that caught our eye is Martin’s story. He’s a young man from Wales who has been in seafaring work almost all his professional life. Even though he is only in his early 30s he’s had impressive career opportunities open up from the seamanship skills he learnt as a cadet.

Martin was a cadet at both Rugby and Fishguard Sea Cadets. He was an active cadet and continued on as an adult officer for a number of years. Becoming really well rounded in all the different skills that cadets offers.

These skills enabled Martin to get his first job teaching watersports, a skill he learnt as a cadet and instructor. After that he went on to have diverse range of seafaring jobs. He worked for the Environment Agency on a coastal survey boat gaining the rank of relief master. Crewed a 3,000 tonne superyacht around the Mediterranean. Worked on search and rescue operations in disaster zones. He has even been a commercial diver, helping to shoot a film working on a film set in China.

Martin now works as a commercial master on the boats for an offshore windfarm and continues to use the skills he first learnt as a cadet.

In his spare time, Martin is a longstanding volunteer with the RNLI. He joined as soon as he was old enough and continues to support their work whenever he is back on shore.

As well as the wide range of experiences professionally that were opened up by the Sea Cadets, the influence of the cadets is also evident in his personal character. Someone like Martin represents the generosity of spirit and commitment to others that runs through so many of the Sea Cadets staff, volunteers and cadets. There is an enthusiasm for doing your bit and helping others, in particular to this case, to stay safe at sea.