News

We are pleased to announce that it has been agreed that from now on the person holding the position of Mayor of Poole, who is also the Admiral of the Port of Poole, will be the Patron of Poole Sea Cadets.

Hamworthy Councillor Julie Bagwell, who has already been afloat with the Cadets, will be the first such Mayor of Poole to become our Patron. Elected as Mayor in May 2021, she enjoys charity work as well as spending time with her seven grandchildren. During her Mayoral year she has set out to visit as many schools and organisations as possible.

The Mayor said, “I truly appreciate all that the team, volunteers and families of all the young people who are cadets do to enhance the lessons learnt by becoming a Sea Cadet, team working, life skills, etc. I am so honoured to be The Patron”.

 It is Poole Sea Cadet’s honour that she becomes our first Poole Mayoral Patron.

The Mayor of Poole inherits the honorary title of the “Admiral of the Port”. This is because from 1526 to 1835 the town was one of the few ports in England to have its own Admiralty Court, the business of which, included inquiring into crimes aboard ships, the activities of pirates, illegal fishing, recording goods salvaged from the sea, and the issuing of licences.

Roberto Rocca, Chair of Poole Sea Cadets, said, “We are extremely honoured that Poole’s Mayoralty, which is nearly 800 years-old, has agreed to become a figure head for our eighty-year-old organisation. Over the decades the Mayoralty and Poole Sea Cadets have always maintained a close relationship”.

For example, Lieutenant Commander Thomas “Tom” Sherrin was Mayor of Poole in 1964. His connection with the Sea Cadet Corps had commenced in 1939 and after a distinguished war service he was promoted to District Officer in 1950 before in 1951 being awarded the M.B.E. for his services to the Sea Cadets. He continued serving the Cadets until he retired as District Officer in 1970.

Paul Harding was named Poole “Sea Cadet of the Year” in 1994. He had been a great help to the then Mayor of Poole, Bruce Grant-Braham (now a Trustee of Poole Sea Cadets) who as a reward was able to co-ordinate sponsorship with the Sail Training Association for Paul to take part in that year’s 80-ship strong Tall Ship’s Race from Weymouth to La Coruna in Spain.

In 2011 the Poole Sea Cadet Unit benefited from a donation from Chris Bulteel, who had been the Mayor of Poole in 2010. The Mayor’s Charity cheque was presented at the Unit’s AGM and prize giving evening.

Poole Sea Cadet’s award-winning band had the great pleasure of playing to the invited guests at the Mayor of Poole, Carol Evans, Garden Party at Upton House in 2012. Carol was the 764th Mayor of Poole. The charities she chose to support that year included both Parkstone and Poole Sea Cadets. She was quoted in the Bournemouth Echo as saying that “Both of these units are struggling to improve their buildings and equipment for the many young people who use them. It will be great to give them a helping hand. These young people are our future, just the sort of young people that we want and need to take our beautiful town forward.”

At the Mayor’s Civic Award evening in 2012 the Unit was honoured to be presented with a Poole Pottery plate for being “Outstanding Ambassadors for the Borough of Poole”.

The Mayoralty of Poole and the Poole Sea Cadets are therefore the perfect fit.

Senior members of Poole Sea Cadets recently took on the challenge of climbing the three highest mountain peaks in Wales, Scotland, and England and in so doing would like to thank their many sponsors.

By climbing Snowdon, Ben Nevis, and Scafell Pike they successfully raised enough sponsorship to cover the costs of running the Sea Cadet Unit for several weeks.

They only just missed their self-imposed target time of 20 hours by a mere 67 minutes, a time that is still considered impressive.

The two very tired and sore walkers were SLt (SCC) Reece Oliver RNR, Commanding Officer, and Civilian Instructor Joel Nurser. Their driver on the more than 400 miles of road sections between the mountains was Petty Officer (SCC) Jasmine Hughes.

The spectacular main photograph of the Sunday morning dawn in the Snowdonia mountains during their Three Peaks Challenge was captured by Reece Oliver.

On Sunday 26th September Poole Sea Cadets are honoured to have been asked by the Poole Branch of the Royal Air Forces Association to attend the Annual Service to commemorate the Battle of Britain at St James' Parish Church at 6.30pm.

The Honorary Chairman, Mr Michael Davis, said, "The intention, last year, to mark the 80th anniversary of the Battle and to incorporate the 80th anniversary of the Dunkirk Evacuation and the 75th anniversaries of the end of the war in Europe and the Far East was thwarted by the pandemic; the service planned for September will commemorate these anniversaries. The presence of Poole Sea Cadet's Standard would be especially welcome".

Poole Sea Cadets will be delighted to join with the Cadets of the Poole, Parkstone and Wareham Squadrons of the Air Training Corps and local Army Cadets too. The Mayor and Sheriff of Poole will be in attendance.

The Battle of Britain fought in the skies over Southern England, including Dorset and Poole, in the summer of 1940 is widely recognised as having been decisive in thwarting an intended invasion by German forces and any thought of surrender. Spitfires, like those pictured, and Hurricanes would have been a very common sight at that time to residents.

It is not always remembered that the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Navy was involved in the Battle of Britain. No less than 57 naval pilots - known as "The Few of The Few" - took part, with Sub Lt 'Dickie' Cork even being the legendary Douglas Bader's wingman in 242 Squadron.

Don’t forget that next Saturday 4th September at noon, our Commanding Officer Reece Oliver and Joel Nurser will start the mammoth task of ascending Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Snowdon by 08.00 on Sunday 5th.

These are the three highest mountain peaks in Wales, Scotland, and England and they have set themselves a target time of a mere 20 hours.

They will cover 23 miles in distance and ascend a total of 3064 meters. To achieve their aim, they are going to have to average a walking/climbing speed of 5 km per hour!

Their driver between those mountains will be Jasmine Hughes. The driving route is 462 miles long, and takes around ten hours in total, in good traffic - the first section from Fort William to Wasdale Head is five-and-a-half hours, and the second section from Wasdale Head to Llanberis takes around four-and-a-half hours.

Let’s hope the weather is favourable to them all.

We must reward their tenacity as their intention is to raise funds for the Unit to help us all maintain our many activities.

If you can, please donate to Poole Sea Cadet’s Three Peaks Challenge the details of which can be found on GoFundMe.com:
gf.me/u/zfi2vz

Poole Sea Cadets recently played a prominent part in a wreath-laying ceremony in Poole Park to commemorate the 76th anniversary of the end of World War 2.

In front of the Civic leaders of Poole, Bournemouth, Christchurch and BCP Councils our buglers accompanied the poignant dipping of the military standards in salute.

The Branch President of the British Legion welcomed the VIPs, VJ Veterans and members of the public to the memorial saying, “On behalf of the Charter of Trustees of Poole and the Poole Branch of the Royal British Legion I would like to welcome everyone to this year’s wreath-laying ceremony to commemorate the 76th anniversary of the ending of the second world war in the Far East otherwise known as VJ day, and to pay our respects to those who lost their lives during that campaign. After the Exhortation there will be a one minutes silence and then the Mayor of Poole will be invited to lay the first wreath”.

The President of Poole Royal British Legion subsequently cited the Exhortation, “They shall grow not old. Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them”.

The President of the Broadstone Branch of the Royal British Legion cited the Kohima Prayer.

“When you go home, tell them of us and say, for your tomorrow we gave our today”.