Guide to the Cadets Souvenirs Collection

Collection Number: Souvenirs 16

Summary

Title: Cadets Souvenirs Collection

Date range of collection: 1900 -

Scope and content note: Contains souvenirs relating to Australia's cadet corps.

Provenance: Items in this collection have been collected from a variety of different sources and donors.

Extent: 1 folder, 14 items.

Location: Published & Digitised Collections, Research Centre, Australian War Memorial.

Administrative information

Processing history: Collection re-housed and re-numbered in 2005.

Access: Open.

Copyright: Contact Senior Curator, Published & Digitised Collections.

Preferred citation: Cadets Souvenirs Collection, Australian War Memorial, Souvenirs 16.

Keywords:

• Subject:
• Cadets
• Senior cadets
• Commonwealth Military Cadet Corps

Historical background

Australia has had a number of different cadet organisations throughout its history. School cadets date from the establishment of a unit at St Mark's Collegiate School, NSW in 1866, and by 1870 there were 200 cadets in schools in New South Wales. On 16th July 1906, the Commonwealth Cadet Corps was raised which united the corps established separately by the states. In 1910 the Defence Act included the Corps in the provisions for Universal Military Training. In this scheme, service in the Junior Cadets was made obligatory for all medically fit boys between the ages of 14 and 18 years.

Universal Military Training was suspended in 1929 and cadets were divided into two categories for the purposes of organisation and training: 
a. Regimental detachments affiliated with units of the Militia forces. 
b. Detachments that were generally school-based and not affiliated with Militia units, and did not receive Army assistance.

In 1939 permanent army staff were withdrawn from the militia for the war effort, and regimental detachments were abandoned. School based units continued to function but with difficulties caused by staff and equipment shortages. In 1941 cadet units began to receive more Army support, conditions of service improved and equipment became more plentiful. By May 1946 cadet activities were paid for by the Army.

Between 1949-51 affiliations between cadet units and Citizen Military Forces were developed and the title of 'Australian Cadet Corps' (ACC) was officially adopted. Cadet Brigades with regular army staff were established and remained in operation until the mid seventies when the Cadet Corps was disbanded by the Whitlam Government. The Corps was reinstated in 1976 as the Australian Services Cadet Scheme, but with the units becoming the responsibility of the community rather than schools and with a downscaling of military-like training.

Navy Cadets

The Australian Navy Cadets (formerly known as the Naval Reserve Cadets) were recognised under the Naval Defence Act of 1910. Until 1973 they were known as the Australian Sea Cadet Corps and were jointly administered by the Navy League of Australia and the Royal Australian Navy. However, in 1973 the RAN assumed full control of the Corps, renaming it the Naval Reserve Cadets, and in 2001 the NRC was given its current title: the Australian Navy Cadets (ANC).

Modern Cadets

Since the 2001 Government review, "Cadets: The Future", Australia now has a collective organisation known as the Australian Defence Force Cadets, with three arms consisting of the Australian Navy Cadets, the Australian Army Cadets and the Australian Air Force Cadets.

References:

Cadets: The Future, Canberra: Department of Defence, 2001p

CadetNet, Australian Defence Force Cadets, 2005

The History of the Australian Army Cadets, Australian Army Cadets website, 2005