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1862 marked the creation of Drill Associations. These associations were linked to local schools. The American Civil War and the threat of the Fenian Raids motivated their creation. These early cadet units, called drill associations, mark the beginning of the Canadian Cadet Movement, one of the country's oldest youth programs.
These early "drill associations" accepted members ranging in age from 13 to 60. The distinction between high school cadets and the adult militia became clear in 1879, when authorization was given to form 74 "Association for Drill in Educational Institutions". Young men over 14 years of age where invited to participate and would not be employed in active service.
These associations included:
Canada's oldest continually serving cadet corps is No. 2 Bishop's College School Cadet Corps in Lennoxville, Quebec.
An increased support, motivated in part by the Northwest Campaign during the Riel Rebellion of 1885, increased the issue of uniforms, weapons and other equipment to schools providing military training.
By 1887, the name cadet corps was recognized as designating the associations providing the training to boys over the age of 12.
The Navy League of Canada was founded in 1895 in order to support the lobby to create the Canadian Navy. Beginning in 1902, the League sponsored Canada's first Boys and Girls' Naval Brigades.
The year 1908 marks the creation of a cadre of commissioned officers, the Corps of School Cadet Instructor (militia), trained and paid by the Department of Militia and Defence to conduct drill and physical training in participating schools. Formed primarily of school teachers, this officer cadre was disbanded in 1921 during a period of reorganization. It reappeared on 1 June 1924 as the Cadet Services of Canada; it was a component of the Canadian Army and the forerunner of the current Cadet Instructor Cadre. This arrangement between the Federal Government and local schoolboards contributed significantly to the development of physical education programs in Canadian schools.
In 1910, Sir Donald Alexander Smith—Lord Strathcona—the Canadian High Commissioner to Britain, deposited in trust with the Dominion Government the sum of $500 000, bearing annual interest of 4%, to develop citizenship and patriotism in cadets through physical training, rifle shooting, and military drill.
Forty thousand former army cadets and several thousand former sea cadets served in His Majesty's forces during World War One. By the end of the war there were 64 000 boys enrolled in Army Cadet corps across Canada.
The Navy League authorized the creation of Girls Naval Brigades as early as World War One. The girls benefited from a training program providing, as much as possible, a parallel training to that of the boys.
During the twenty years following World War One, cadet training came to a standstill. Many corps survived these hard times, but the Depression and the lack of public interest caused the cancellation of the uniform grant for Army Cadets in 1931 and the instructional grant for 12 and 13 year olds in 1934.
The beginning of World War Two brought a renewed public interest in cadet training. Cadet corps were formed in many high schools. During the war, the Royal Canadian Navy began its partnership with the Navy League in sponsoring Sea Cadets and their officers were taken on the payroll to the Royal Canadian Navy.
The Air Cadet League of Canada was formed in 1940, and raised its first squadrons in 1941. From the outset, the Air Cadet League enjoyed a partnership with the Royal Canadian Air Force, which enrolled Air Cadet instructors as commissioned officers. By the end of World War Two, they had raised 374 squadrons with an enrolment of 29 000 Air Cadets.
During and after World War Two, you could find a cadet corps that paraded a female platoon or company. But these unofficial female cadets could never lawfully be trained, kited, fed or transported and were not allowed to attend summer camp.
In recognition of the significant contribution of former cadets to the war effort, His Majesty King George VI conferred the title royal to the cadet program, creating the Royal Canadian Sea Cadets, the Royal Canadian Army Cadets, and the Royal Canadian Air Cadets. It is estimated that nearly 230 000 former sea, army and air cadets served in His Majesty's forces during World War Two.
After World War Two, quotas were imposed reducing Canada's total cadet force to about 75 000 members. Many of the closed corps, those with membership restricted to boys in one particular school, were disbanded; some of them became open corps, training in militia armouries or in Legion halls; others, like many corps sponsored by the Navy League, acquired their own buildings.
The Korean War stimulated growth among open corps in the early 1950s. After 1954, Korea veterans staffed the Area Cadet Offices that began to manage these corps and the summer camps that trained them.
Following the unification of the Canadian Forces in 1968, a number of changes occurred in the Cadet world:
Girls have participated unofficially in cadet training almost from the beginning. Shortly after the Highland Cadet Corps was stood up at the Guelph Grammar School in 1882, a female cadet company called the Daughters of the Regiment, was also raised.
On the 30 July 1975, parliament amended the relevant legislation by changing the word boys to persons, therefore permitting girls to become members of the Royal Canadian Sea, Army, and Air Cadets.
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