News

A Naval charity that has helped connect lonely veterans to the Internet has won a prestigious national award - with the help of the Sea Cadet Corps.

Project Semaphore, one of the Royal Naval Association (RNA)’s flagship initiatives, took the honours in the People’s Choice category at the annual Soldiering On Awards.

The project aims to help alleviate loneliness and improve the finances of digitally-isolated veterans by issuing Apple iPads and training individuals in how to benefit from access to the Internet.

Once they are trained, veterans including those with limited mobility can use their new iPads to message and video-call far-flung family members or old friends and can take up new hobbies or research the history of their old ships online.

The training programme, carried out by more than 70 volunteers, also provides social interaction; many of the trainers were RNA members but Naval Reservists and members of Sea Cadet units also got involved, reinforcing the inclusivity of the Royal Naval family.

Current RNA General Secretary Bill Oliphant said: “Project Semaphore is a perfect example of the ethos of today’s Royal Naval Association.

Project Manager Sarah Clewes, herself a veteran, said: “We are delighted to have won – thank you so much to all those who voted for us. This Award is recognition for all those who have given their time to volunteer, stepped outside their comfort zone to learn how to use an iPad, and for the range of like-minded organisations and charities who have helped us reach more veterans. I have seen the extraordinary effect that this programme has had on lonely individuals, with veterans in their 90s suddenly able to chat regularly with relatives on the far side of the world – relatives they had not seen or spoken to in years”.

The ship's cat used to be a common feature on many trading, exploration, and naval ships dating to ancient times. Cats were carried on ships for many reasons, most importantly to control rodents and in addition, offer companionship and a sense of home to sailors away from home.

Nowadays the ship's cat is a thing of the past... or maybe not? 

A 'cat' that once belonged to HMS Elizabeth, but has now come ashore to explore other ships visited Sea Cadet's TS Royalist! 

The cat jumped on board for two days to watch our cadets unfurl the sails, manually pull sea boats up - plus so much more! Ship's Cat even joined for dinner... although there wasn't much food there for a cat! 

Ship's Cat said, "What a ship! And what an enthusiastic bunch of young people, working together to improve themselves while having fun along the way. The future is bright!"

To see the Ship's Cat's full experience on Royalist click here.

The Mountbatten Festival of Music features the Massed Bands of Her Majesty’s Royal Marines, performing over two nights at the Royal Albert Hall. These concerts display the outstanding versatility of the world’s finest military musicians in a spectacular venue. The Festival sees the Royal Marines showcase their incredible musicianship and pageantry and features a wide range of musical styles, including music from the big screen and superb solo items, as well as the traditional marches and overtures that have proved such a hit with audiences over the years. This year, Captain General Royal Marines Prince Harry was among those who attended.

Proceeds go to The Royal Marines Charity and CLIC Sargent.

First Sea Lord Cadets host VIPs at the event and help the event organisers with various other duties such as programme selling.

The National Junior Indoor Rowing Championships took place at the Copper Box Arena in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park London on Friday. The SCC was represented by over 40 Sea and Royal Marines Cadets from London, Southern and Eastern Areas with cadets travelling from Scarborough, Salisbury, Medway, Walton on the Naze, Newham, Southend, Rickmansworth, Newham, Chiswick, Kingston, Beckenham and Chislehurst and Sidcup to take part, along with their team managers, supporters and drivers. This year we had a group of cadets from the recently formed Medway Victory Unit - TS Temeraire which is a CEP Unit in Kent.

NJIRC is a hugely popular event with over 2000 rowers taking part from schools, rowing clubs and other organisations across the country.

Commander James Nisbet Area Officer London came to give his support with the London Area Training Manager Cliff Lewis. Also, at the event was Olympic Medal Winning Rower Lt Cdr Pete Reed OBE RN who took pride in showing his winning medals to the cadets.

Although there were no SCC medal winners on the day in either the single or relay races all of the cadets gave their all and behaved impeccably throughout racing against some top-flight rowers.

Huge BZ to all of the cadets that took part and thank you to all of the adult volunteers who gave up their time to facilitate their cadets taking part.

It's our first challenge event of the year!

We have nine amazing runners taking on the London Landmarks Half Marathon to raise money for Sea Cadets on Sunday 24 March.

To support these incredible runners we’re looking for enthusiastic cheerers to join us and help them all cross the finish line.

Join us for a day that celebrates the history of our capital, with dance performances, bands and history tours along the route - all while cheering on our runners!

Timings

From 8.30am - Cheerers begin arriving at the Sea Cadets meeting and cheer point on Trafalgar Square
From 9.30am - The half marathon starts! We will be cheering on the runners from our cheer point on the Square
From 11.00am - Cheerers move to the Sea Cadets photo cheer point on Whitehall to see our runners cross the finish line
Between 11.30am - 13.30pm - Runners begin finishing the half marathon and will join us at the Sea Cadets finishing point on The Mall

Meeting and Cheer Points

To celebrate London’s ‘Grand, Quirky and Hidden’ history, we’ll have our very own Sea Cadet point on Trafalgar Square commemorating the Battle of Trafalgar, where we'll meet our runners before they start and cheer them on along the route.

We will also have our Sea Cadets photo cheer point along Whitehall from 11.00am, so we’ll see our runners heading towards the finish line!

Once our runners have finished you can join us to congratulate them on completing their half marathon, at the Sea Cadets finishing point on The Mall.

Take a look at the map below to see where all our meeting and cheer points will be for the day!

Get involved here and join us whenever you can on the day. If you have any questions, please get in touch with Becky at getinvolved@ms-sc.org