RUGBY SEA CADETS

WELCOME

Welcome to the Rugby Sea Cadet & Rugby Royal Marines Cadets’ Unit website. This site has been designed to give you information about the organisation and in particular Rugby Sea Cadet Unit. The Royal Marines Cadets have their own site www.rugbymarinecadets.com.

The Unit is open to young people, both male and female, between the ages of 10 and 18.

PARADE NIGHTS

Rugby Sea Cadets meet every Monday and Wednesday evening between 19.15 and 21.45 at their headquarters at the rear of Rugby Gymnastics Club, 92 Lower Hillmorton Road, Rugby, CV21 3TF.

HISTORY

The Sea Cadet Corps (SCC) has one of the longest continuous histories of any youth organisation in the country, but it has evolved haphazardly. The Corps dates back to the Crimean War (1854-1856) when sailors returning home from the campaign formed Naval Lads’ Brigades to help orphans in the back streets of sea ports.

The SCC in the UK can be traced back to the Kent port of Whitstable where the first of the Naval Lads’ Brigades was established. The success of the brigades in helping disadvantaged youth led to the formation of the Navy League, a national organisation with a membership of 250,000 dedicated to supporting the Royal Navy, which subsequently adopted the Brigades in 1910.

The Sea Cadets offer a wide range of largely free activities ranging from sailing and canoeing, rock climbing, engineering, IT and communications, to music and cookery. The Corps aims to encourage good citizenship and provide worthwhile qualifications (including the Duke of Edinburgh Award and BTEC in Public Services, Music and Engineering), experience and adventure for young people. Cadets have the opportunity to learn life skills whilst having fun and making friends.

We have a rank structure modelled on that of the Royal Navy and Royal Marines, giving Cadets an opportunity to progress and take up positions of responsibility as they acquire skills and seniority. On reaching the age of 18, many Cadets choose to stay on as adult instructors, when their training and talents become invaluable.

RUGBY SEA CADET UNIT

Rugby Unit is one of almost 400 Units in every corner of the UK, both coastal and inland, where more than 6,000 enthusiastic adult volunteers regularly welcome approximately 13,000 girls and boys aged between 10 and 18. A quarter of our Units have Marine Cadet Detachments open to boys and girls from the age of 13. We aim to encourage good citizenship and provide worthwhile qualifications, experience and adventure. Our people have the opportunity to learn valuable life skills while having fun and making friends.

Our Unit dates back to 1942 and we are lucky enough to have all three sections on offer to young people:

JUNIOR SEA CADETS – 10 to 12 years

SEA CADETS – 12 to 18 years

MARINE CADETS – 13 to 18 years

ADULTS

We have a number of adult volunteers, without whom the organisation could not function, and support and train them, whatever their previous experience and skills.

There are opportunities for both teaching the Cadets in the enormous variety of subjects that we offer, and also supporting their activities via Parents’ and Supporters’ Associations and Unit Management Committees. We need administrators and DIY experts; people willing to run the snack bar and others to drive the minibus; canoeists and IT enthusiasts. If you’ve got a skill, we can find an outlet for it. And you can even pick up some new skills and qualifications yourself along the way!
The financial support that we receive from the Royal Navy enables us to offer our uniformed volunteers a number of days’ training pay each year.

It doesn’t matter whether you’ve got previous experience dealing with young people or not – we’re just looking for willing volunteers who want to be part of the team and enjoy the satisfaction of seeing Cadets develop and mature. As you’d expect, all our volunteers are rigorously vetted.

For more information about joining the organisation, please follow this link, or use the ‘How to Join’ link on the menu bar at the top of the screen.

TRAINING SHIP

Each Sea Cadet Unit is known as a Training Ship and is affiliated to a Royal Naval vessel or establishment. Rugby Sea Cadets are known as Training Ship Tireless and are affiliated to the Royal Naval Trafalgar Class Submarine, H.M.S. Tireless.