Cornwall Army Cadets in 2020

Even though face-to-face training had to stop for most of 2020, where possible Cornwall Army Cadets kept training and maintaining contact with cadets and adult volunteers online using Facebook and Zoom.

The Rifles Bugle Competition was on Saturday 25^th April. Our cadet entrant, Corporal Jon Brown did very well but was not placed in the top 3. Our Bugle Major Matt LANG also made the semi-final in the adult event.

But it’s not all training. One Cadet from Cornwall raised money for the Royal British Legion by doing a 'Poppy Run'. On Remembrance Sunday, 15-year-old Ethan Fairbrother ran an 11-mile run in aid of the Poppy Appeal.

Ethan hopes to join the Parachute Regiment when he leaves school. “I wanted to run to help those who gave everything for us to be here. It was the least I could do. As a cadet and a relative of servicemen, I felt it would be wrong to just sit around and do nothing, so I decided to give some back to those who gave all.” Ethan has already raised more than £1,000 and finished in 16th place out of over 600 entrants, most of whom were adults.

Other sporting activities stayed in the home: Second Lieutenant Colin Gibson, along with his son Lance Corporal Benjamin Gibson and other Cadets and other adult volunteers, took part in a challenge to do 30 press-ups every hour in 24 hours – that is 720 press ups each and not much sleep!

Cadet Daniel MARTIN of Launceston Detachment cycled the 73 mile distance of Hadrian’s Wall whilst still being down here in Cornwall, in fact he completed a total of 90 miles.

Our new Lord Lieutenant Cadet was appointed in October. Serjeant Henry Cooper from Truro Detachment has been a hard working NCO and an inspiration to other cadets in the company since 2015. He has embraced his new responsibility even at this difficult time.

And finally, the adult volunteers took part in videos for social media which included a touching Act of Remembrance with a Cornwall Cadet Bugler Brown playing the Last Post and a ‘Salute and Pass the Beret’ video to celebrate the 75^th anniversary of VE day.