Public Secondary Schools Cadet Association

[Moonraker]

I've long wondered about the "Public Secondary Schools" camps held on Marlborough Common during the war and have a couple of postcards showing their tents. Yesterday I came across this brochure for the 1931 camp on eBay which nudged me into doing a bit of research. As such camps and the association promoting them appear not to have featured on the GWF before, here are my notes:

In 1908, the Minister for War, Lord Haldane, invited universities and schools to form units of a new Corps to provide officers for the newly-formed Territorial Force and a reservoir of officer material in the event of war. As a result, 87 schools formed the Junior Officers’ Training Corps,administered directly from the War Office which drew up schemes for training, introduced proficiency certificates and arranged for annual camps and inspections. Membership depended on two criteria: a corps of no fewer than 30 cadets over the age of 13, and military efficiency, gauged by the availability of facilities and qualified officer-instructors.

Some other schools besides those forming the OTC had formed Volunteer cadet units soon after 1900 and subsequently received full official recognition and a small grant from public funds. They were usually affiliated to TF Regiments and administered through County TF Associations. In 1915, 92 such units were attached to various Regiments.

There was an implicit social distinction between the OTC and the Public Secondary Schools Cadet Association. In 1918 the Association called for "the sweeping away of the invidious and anomalous distinction between OTC schools and Cadet Corps schools", with members of the latter being perceived to be of low social status.

A "Public secondary schools" camp was held on Marlborough Common each year from 1915 to 1920 and from 1928-31 and at other locations in between.

Googling led to about 25 hits, each fairly superficial.

I would be interested in further details of the Association and when it was formed, please.

EDIT: outside the period of the Great War, but this clip does show two wartime leaders, Field Marshals Viscount Allenby and Sir Claud Jacob, visiting the 1929 camp.

 

Edited 30 November , 2021 by Moonraker

[Moonraker]

I've just acquired a booklet recording the events at the Public Secondary Schools Cadet Camp at Marlborough in August 1919. As well as a list of the participating schools, there is some fascinating minutiae:

the cooking staff were supplied by Durrington Camp;

the London & South Western Railway "refused a special from Waterloo" and sent the request to the Great Western Railway. (There were then two stations at Marlborough.) The one train proved insufficient and there was no time to arrange a second;

the Inspector General was Sir Charles Woollcombe, an Old Marlburian. He was generally complimentary but, admitting that he had not expected a high standard of drill from an assembly of  different schools, he criticised "a tendency to crush up against each other" and the NCOs not always keeping their ranks the proper two paces apart. (His seems to have been a very long speech - I hope that the cadets didn't get fidgety.)

a cartoon featuring camp personalities includes the local photographer, Mr Roberts, who published a number of postcards at such camps;

the YMCA provided three marquees;

a local practitioner was the honorary medical officer, and the VAD Hospital remained open for the camp, despite due to have been closed a few weeks before.

Worth every penny of the £12 I paid!

[FionaBam]

On 27/07/2023 at 16:02, Moonraker said:

I've just acquired a booklet recording the events at the Public Secondary Schools Cadet Camp at Marlborough in August 1919. As well as a list of the participating schools, there is some fascinating minutiae:

the cooking staff were supplied by Durrington Camp;

the London & South Western Railway "refused a special from Waterloo" and sent the request to the Great Western Railway. (There were then two stations at Marlborough.) The one train proved insufficient and there was no time to arrange a second;

the Inspector General was Sir Charles Woollcombe, an Old Marlburian. He was generally complimentary but, admitting that he had not expected a high standard of drill from an assembly of  different schools, he criticised "a tendency to crush up against each other" and the NCOs not always keeping their ranks the proper two paces apart. (His seems to have been a very long speech - I hope that the cadets didn't get fidgety.)

a cartoon featuring camp personalities includes the local photographer, Mr Roberts, who published a number of postcards at such camps;

the YMCA provided three marquees;

a local practitioner was the honorary medical officer, and the VAD Hospital remained open for the camp, despite due to have been closed a few weeks before.

Worth every penny of the £12 I paid!

That's a wonderful picture you have painted there for us! Thank you .most interesting 

And indeed £12 extremely well spent!

Cheers

Fiona