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during a recent visit from Captain Phil Russell, we were pleased to announce that the unit had received a donation of £10,000 towards the purchase of some portacabins for the unit.

The donation came from the Helen and SG MacGregor Bequest Fund and was acquired by Robert Cairns, Chairman of the management committee. It will be spent on the purchase and siting of two portacabins at the Fort William Cadet Centre. The aim is to provide more space so that the TS St Christopher can give a better service for its young people. Robert said, “We’re extremely grateful for this donation. It will enable us to have more classrooms, a proper store room, a meeting room and a committee office. We’ve outgrown the present cadet centre and this will be a tremendous help for us.”

Sea Cadets date back to the Crimean War when sailors returning home from the campaign in 1856 formed Naval Lads’ Brigades to help those orphans, created by the conflict, who ended up on the back streets of sea ports.

Run like small ships, the orphanages were so successful that soon similar homes were soon established across the country. Nevertheless, the Brigade received Royal recognition in 1899 and was formally recognised by the Royal Navy in 1919, with which it now has close links.

The TS St Christopher was established in 1953 and took its name from HMS St Christopher, the Coastal Forces training base that was located in Fort William during the second world war.

Today cadets and adults can gain internationally recognised qualifications in subjects such sailing, power boating, sub aqua, windsurfing, first aid, engineering, navigation, adventure training, seamanship, communications, shooting, swimming, leadership, kayaking and music.

Young people can join our unit from ten years of age - just come along and have a chat to us. We're also looking for some people to join our teams of adults - especially female instructors and people who have some background in administration. Our unit management committee are also looking for members. 

Forty Sea Cadets from Inverness, Lochaber, Oban, Moray and Campbeltown met at Achnacarry to take part in the fifth annual cadet version of the world war two Commando Speed March.

The original aspirant commandos had to run the seven miles to their camp at Achnacarry, while carrying a 36lb pack from Spean Bridge railway station in less than an hour. Failure would result in them being sent home without undertaking the rest of the course.

This years’ winner, carrying a 16lb pack, was Able Cadet Jamie Sturrock from the TS Briton in Inverness with a time of 57 minutes and 6 seconds, which shaved eleven seconds off the previous record which was set by Iain Cameron of Campbeltown last year. Joint second place went to Ordinary Cadet James Treasurer and Ordinary Cadet Toby Deaken, both also from Inverness with a time of 1hour 15 seconds. They were followed by cadet Lachlan Mackinnon of the TS St Christopher in Lochaber who stormed home with a time of 1 hour 21 minutes.

The first Oban cadet was Aaron McCall who finished with a time of 1 hour and 25 minutes. While Moray and Campbeltown didn’t have any cadets in the main race, they joined the walk which is available for everyone else to take part in.

The Commando Association trophy for the first unit to finish went to the Inverness Sea Cadet Unit.

The trophies were presented by Mr. Danny Munro, President of the Fort William Branch of the Royal British Legion Scotland who said “So often, we just hear about young people for the wrong reasons and so it’s really nice to see everyone here putting in such a fantastic effort to do something positive.”

The event was organised by Lt (SCC) Derrick Warner RNR who said, “While we do this to commemorate the supreme efforts of the original commandos, we also use this as an opportunity to get cadets from all the forces together to compete in friendly competition. We’ve had tremendous support from Donald Cameron of Locheil and his staff for letting us use Achnacarry and The Royal British Legion Scotland who came along to present the trophies. We also need to recognise the commitments of some of these cadets who have had a 300 mile round trip in order to take part today.”

An audience of VIPs and parents gathered at the unit to see an evening of ceremonial and demonstrations of skill and fun! This years prize winners Best Cadet: Gregor Linfield, Cadet of the Year: Emma Watchman, Photography Trophy: Gregor Linfield, Community Trophy: Hannah Calder and Junior Cadet of the Year: Rebekah Leslie.

The trophies were presented by Captain Peter Adams RN, Northern Area Officer of the Sea Cadet Corps from Rosyth.

We were delighted to be invited for a tour round HMS BLYTH, a Sandown Class Minehunter which was visiting Oban. Consequently, after an early start, twelve cadets and three adults climbed aboard the huge grey ship.

During their visit the cadets learned about the engineering department, how the ship deals with unexploded mines and had a tour of the bridge. Obviously HMS BLYTH is called to work in places of conflict and so she has to be able to defend herself and so the cadets were given the opportunity to have a look at some of her weapons systems. To add the icing to the cake, the junior cadets got to sit in the Captain's chair in the bridge!

The picture shows the cadets, staff and two of our guides from HMS BLYTH standing on the quarterdeck between snow showers!