News

We at City of London unit are delighted to be opening a brand new Royal Marines Cadets Detachment within the unit with the aim to build even further on the success of the existing Sea Cadets and Junior Cadets. This is an especially exciting time as the Royal Marines themselves recently celebrated their 360th birthday!

We are seeking new "recruits" aged 13-17 for the detachment although 12-year-olds who are soon to be 13 are welcome to inquire. As with Sea Cadets, ageing out is on turning 18. There will be an online recruitment evening held on the evening of 4th November and, if interest allows, an additional date later this year. The detachment will meet on Monday evenings on HMS President and on Friday evenings on HMS Belfast, with the rest of the ship's company. 

Royal Marines Cadets was first formed in 1955 and are a part of the Sea Cadets and very similar in operation, however, cadets follow a different structure and training plan with more emphasis on land-based skills including map reading, fieldcraft, tactics and shooting (under constant expert supervision). The detachment cadets will have access to the same boating opportunities, courses and qualifications as their blue-jacket (Sea Cadet) counterparts but will wear a different uniform and have a different style of drill (marching and saluting). 

We are very excited to be starting this new part of our unit's life and look forward to welcoming our brand new Royal Marines Cadets to our ship's company! Please do share far and wide with anyone you think may be interested in becoming a Royal Marines Cadet with us. 

Following a busy few months with many events, including our unit flag day, our cadets competed in the London Northern District Drill & Piping Competition on Sunday 18th February. 

The cadets and staff put in a lot of hard work in preparation for the day, practising drill movements, practising piping and getting all the No 1 uniforms in top condition for the special day. Regarding the cadets' preparation, judge Sub-Liutenant Sountharajah stated "whoever did the cap cleaning hats off to you!" 

All of the hard work paid off with Able Cadet (AC) Agnes taking first place in the Individual Piping and the unit taking home gold in Unarmed Drill with a squad consisting of AC Samarah as Squad Commander and the members as AC Dominic, Cadet 1st Class (Cdt 1st) Kiana, Cdt 1st Ava, Cdt 1st Vincent, Ordinary Cadet (OC) Lakai, OC Ronnie, OC Natalia, OC Luis, and OC Dylan. AC Samarah was also awarded Best Squad Commander, and Cdt 1st Kiana was awarded Best Dressed.

We are immensely proud of our cadets and hope their success at the District level is replicated at the upcoming London Area competition. 

Tuesday (18th July) saw us hold our first Royal Naval Parade (RNP) since 2019!

The evening was a great success with the unit inspected by the London Area Officer, Cdr James Nisbet RN. Also in attendance was the unit's chair Mr Daniel Wells and the London Northern District Officer Lt Cdr (SCC) Mark Weston RNR, as well as VIPs Richard Shakleton, Comms Director to Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, Deborah Finch and Peter Blythe. A great number of parents, guardians, friends and family were in attendance with an excellent feast laid on by the newly reformed Parents And Supporters Association (PASA).

The cadets enjoyed classes on First Aid (taught by PO Randall), Seamanship (taught by POs Fynn and Villacis), Wellbeing (taught by PO Pérez), and the Juniors enjoyed a class on International Code Flags (taught by CPO Townsend and PO Pucilowski). These classes were open so visiting guests could see what it is the cadets get up to.  While classes were in session, Ordinary Cadet Jonathan gave the VIP and visiting officers a thorough tour of the ship.

Colours and Evening Colours were held out in the open air on the Boat Deck which made for a great spectacle with the signal party using the ship's flag pole and guests able to sit and watch. Following Colours the Area Officer inspected each cadet and took the time to speak to them, while after Evening Colours the Area Officer made presentations including the promotion of Cadet First Class Jonathan to Ordinary Cadet, the promotion of PO Fynn from Probationary to full Petty Officer, and the awarding of the King’s Commission (Queen’s at the time of his promotion) to OIC Sub Lt Ben McDonald.

We are pleased to have scored very well in the inspection with Level 2 BTEC attainment the only area which could be improved!

Our cadets had a fabulous time on the Norfolk Broads trip at the start of this month and all gained many qualifications. We also had cadets attend the district Easter camp in Weymouth! 

Pictured is Cadet 1st Class Dylan, and cadets from TS Renown, TS Challenger and TS Barrosa, representing the unit as one of the Carpet Guard at the entrance to Westminster Abbey. He also took part in the parade and wreath-laying ceremony.

On the theme of ceremonials, we also have several cadets due to attend the King's Coronation Parade with some also selected for the guard! 

This month our cadets have been very busy! 

On Friday 3rd June, Cadet 1st Class Samarah read for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee Service at St Paul's Cathedral! See her below with the Archdeacon of London and listen to her reading here! Not only did she represent the unit really well but also the entirety of the Sea Cadets! The week of the Jubilee, Cadet AJ and Cadet 1st Class Agnes also helped out on the Sea Cadet's stand at the Greenwich Jubilee Festival chatting to members of the public about what we do at Sea Cadets and several cadets were on the Mall to see the Trooping the Colour and RAF flypast!

Our cadets have also been busy doing lots and lots of boating most Tuesdays at the Royal Docks boat station. They have been doing rowing, sailing and powerboating with the unit as well as going on courses to try paddlesport and windsurfing too and we'll even have lots of cadets going offshore on trips this summer! This weekend is the London Northern District regatta and we have two teams entering for rowing! 

As well as all this we've had Duke of Edinburgh expeditions, ship visits, ceremonials, regular unit nights and so much more! 

We are currently looking for more volunteers to join us so if you are aged 18+ and interested please visit our volunteering page and fill out the request. You can choose to be a uniformed instructor, a non-uniformed instructor or part of the unit management team.