Royal School, Armagh

The Contingent was founded in 1916 as part of the First Cadet Battalion of the Royal Irish Fusiliers and is ever mindful of its roots. The Contingent provides an excort and piper in uniform for wreath-laying ceremonies at the School’s own Service of Remembrance, and a party of RSA cadets in uniform represents the School in Armagh at the Cenotaph and supports the Royal British Legion on parade in the city for Remembrance Day.

In The Royal School, the cadets are all volunteers. Some go to the RAF Section, rather more into the Army Section and, in the Contingent, they have the freedom to take their place and the encouragement to shape that place to themselves. Using military skills as the vehicle, and within a framework shaped by the military ethos, they learn first to follow – the close horizon; looking after themselves within the group – and then to lead – the farther horizon; looking after others and sustaining the group.

The military world remains a bastion of good manners, and life in the Contingent hones the social skills. Cadets must learn to interact effectively with cadets from other schools and other cadet forces, and with adults from corporal storemen to royal dukes, even the Queen and her Consort. The Contingent encourages the cadets to understand that, bearing the name of the School and wearing the badge of the regiment, there is a standard to be upheld and a reputation not their own to be sustained. The successful care for these concerns of others becomes the solid foundation of the cadet’s own self-respect.

The simple starting-point is smart turn-out and bearing in uniform, the practical and visible expression of respect for the name and the badge: then courtesy, in having the grace to acknowledge effort made on their behalf; to take none for granted; to accord proper and measured respect to all, with no excess of awe for the great and the good. The Contingent encourages the cadets to be mindful of their own nascent worth, unproven as yet perhaps, but offering the possibility of equal, even of loftier distinction.

It is the volunteer spark in these cadets that of itself bespeaks distinction, but natural modesty leads few to any clear notion of their own quality. The Contingent actively compensates and draws the cadets’ attention to the firm base in which self-respect may fairly take root, which is this; that their School is a royal foundation with four hundred years of history; that their parent Regiment has three centuries of service to the crown and the nation; and that the reigning monarch sees fit to be their Captain-General. Starting from that base, the Contingent’s aspiration for each and every cadet is to instil a justified self-esteem, to nourish a well-founded confidence that is no cousin to conceit.

Training
Under control of the School Staff Instructor, a retired Warrant Officer with 22 years of regular service, Army Section training in School and away from home on weekends is effective and feeds the interest of the Cadets. The RAF Section has its own agenda of aeronautical subjects and activities on Parade Days in School in preparation for Air Experience Flying and gliding at weekends. The Contingent plans to bring a considerable party, all comers, every month in term time, on weekend outings to military training areas and open firing ranges, except for December, when the Inspection of Training takes precedence.

The Regular Army plays its part and provides a Cadet Training Team which instructs senior cadets on the syllabus for the Army Proficiency Certificate (Advanced), which ensures a solid foundation of knowledge among the Cadet Instructors. That knowledge improves performance and promotes self-confidence. The Cadet Training Team also offers a variety of weekend courses away from School and prepares aspiring Cadet Instructors for week-long Cadet Leadership Courses in GB.

Certain aspects of the training have direct relevance beyond the Contingent. Cadets can enhance their formal educational record through their CCF training. In completing their Army Proficiency Certificate training, the cadets cover 80% of the syllabus for the BTEC in Public Service, which is the equivalent of four GCSE passes and no small incentive for continuing CCF membership into the senior end of the School. “Shooting and Safety” is social responsibility training in a nutshell. The care and caution that go into a shoot, if applied later in life to, for example, driving a car, running a factory, or merely lighting a bonfire in the garden, would be a first-class guide in principle for the avoidance of detriment to self and others. Most cadets achieve the Young Lifesaver Award in their first two years. This is perhaps the most valuable part of CCF training and the sure mark of a personality that looks outward for the good of others.

There is a natural order of progression in the training. Recruits learn first to manage themselves individually; to arrive on time, at the right place, with the right kit and the right clothing; to keep themselves warm, dry and properly fed. That is management at the operational level. Then, as junior NCOs, they accept responsibility for presenting parties of younger cadets on time, at the right place, et cetera. Well primed by now with military knowledge and trained in the Method of Instruction, they take on the transmission of that knowledge to their successors. However daunting, they must step forth to speak or to demonstrate before an assembled company, be it only six or eight or ten cadet recruits, to be the one in charge, the leader, the one whose words and actions will affect the rest for good or for ill. That is the move to managerial level. The most senior cadets, with years of service and experience, who have won the regard and confidence of their officers, can affect the direction and character of the Contingent, which touches upon management at the strategic level.

What becomes evident is that, while the Cadet Training Syllabus covers mainly military skills, those skills are not simply an end in themselves. On a more abstruse level, they enable the Contingent to set all its cadets on a path of training in management. Over the years of cadet service, the Contingent introduces its members to the essence of management training, delivered with no fanfare, but progressive from operational to managerial to strategic, and a sound preparation for the professional and executive roles so many will one day undertake.

Competition
Competition is more than mere striving. The best expression of gratitude and the most honest compliment to the largely volunteer organizers of Cadet Force competitions is attendance, and for that reason the Contingent competes at provincial level in every possible event. The cadets who populate the teams pay the compliment on the Contingent’s behalf, all the while enhancing the good standing of their own unit and, with that, reinforcing and validating their self-esteem.

The Contingent competes up to national level in First Aid, Clay Target and Target Rifle, Its shooters have figured in the Cadet 100, the top performers at Bisley, and represented Ireland at Under-19 level.

Annual Camp
The Army Section travels annually to Summer Camp in GB. There is invariably a very full programme, planned and executed by a pair of cadet Training Teams, with shooting (small-bore and fullbore), campcraft, fieldcraft, first aid, night navigation and much besides.

Inspection of Training – the chance to shine
There is an annual Inspection of Training. It involves theatre of a sort, and the School Staff Instructor directs the production with understated ease. The Cadets are free to hold centre-stage. The Post-Exercise Report for the last Inspection reads:

“It was a brilliant day, fiercely cold and bright as diamonds. [The plan was] .. simple and straightforward – inspection in open order; half-a-dozen stands, 4x Army, 2x RAF; minimal top-hamper of Cadet Force adults; no entourage of visiting MIPs - and gave space for the cadets to impress all and sundry.
 
[The Inspecting Officer] .. engaged the Cadets, every one of them, and gave them their chance to tell him what makes them tick. They had a lot to say – not backward in coming forward. .. It was a lovely day out for the Contingent.”

On the day, there were visitors from the Reserve Forces and Cadets Association, who delivered this compliment:
 
“[We] were very impressed by the enthusiasm and 'can do' attitude of the cadets. They are extremely polite and certainly a credit to both the school and the cadet movement.”

The personal example
In their work with the Cadets, the Contingent’s officers have guidance and support from a variety of military personnel – Regular and Territorial, serving and retired, visiting and enrolled. At the centre always is the School Staff Instructor, professional himself in every regard and fit to train a battalion.

Personalities vary, but certain qualities obtain in every one of them. The Contingent has in the past offered unsolicited commendation of two such individuals – one male, one female – which might serve to make the point.

“[This instructor] .. displayed all we might ask of military competence and instructional skills, the twain exercised with energy and enthusiasm to bring the Cadets beyond their notions of what they might dare and endure. Her contact with the Army Section was characterised by good humour toward all, by sympathy for the children – that essential of the cadet world -- and, for Cadet Force adults who lack her degree of experience in the services, by patience and personal kindness.”

“[This Warrant Officer] .. has been constant in his encouragement of all in this Contingent by his example and advice, and a contribution beyond the call of his brief. .. Above all, I value the example [he] sets for the Cadets - courtesy, good humour and loyalty; generosity with his time, at work and in the community; personal kindness, dependability and patience for all in his charge; foresight in planning, energy in action and swift adjustment to contingency. These are the characteristics that make contact with soldiers so rewarding for Cadets.”

Overseas expeditions
The Contingent encourages and supports cadets who aspire to join expeditions in distant lands – Canada, Lesotho, Peru, Bavaria, Kwazulu-Natal – as an avenue to self-development, especially through outreach to help the people they meet.

The Rocky Mountain Challenge, on exchange with the Royal Canadian Army Cadets, is an outstandinjg opportunity– six weeks in the Rockies with a party of British and Canadian cadets, speaking both English and French, up mountains, across glaciers, down raging rivers – and the Contingent has sent cadets in each of the last four years.

The outlook
The Contingent is the smallest in the Province, and small units must allow for crests and troughs, linked usually to the interests, energies and availability of adults, even, now and then, to individual cadets and their enthusiasms. Presently, the Contingent has a combination of adults - the constant base - and cadets - the prime source of renewable energy – that has emboldened even the diffident, the quiet and retiring, to make far-flung ambitions into realities. The cadets help and encourage each other, and morale is high. The record of recent achievement is considerable; achievement fires ambition, and bright ideas are burgeoning. The adults in the team cope easily with novelty and change and make the bright ideas real. With good young people coming forward, this dynamic combination can keep the Contingent surfing the crest.

Wm E McCahon MBE MA
Lieutenant Colonel
Contingent Commander, CCF
The Royal School, Armagh
June 23rd, 2011