THE GUNMAKERS’ COMPANY’S AFFILIATED CADETS: THE YEAR SO FAR

The Gunmakers’ Company is affiliated with three Cadet Units:

• West Ham Sea Cadets, based in Canning Town;
• 25 Detachment (Princess of Wales Royal Regiment) (‘25 PWRR’) Army Cadet Force, based in Bethnal Green;
• 31 (Tower Hamlets) Squadron Royal Air Force Air Cadets (‘RAFAC’), based in Bow.

Like the Gunmakers’ Company, these Units are all based in the East End of London. This reinforces the Company’s links to our locality.

The Gunmakers’ Company’s activities with its affiliated Cadet Units continue apace. All three Units have been busy earning badges, attending courses, competitions and outdoor activities, engaging in the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Scheme and parading at civic and other ceremonies.

31 Squadron RAFAC invited the Gunmakers’ Company to its Annual Awards Ceremony on 30^th January. The Gunmakers’ Company and the Gunmakers’ Charitable Trust each presented the Squadron with a BSA Scorpion Cadet Mk.4 air rifle, a weapon that is being introduced by the MoD to replace traditional rifles and that allows 31 Squadron to reinforce its already impressive reputation on the shooting range.

Following a review over the February - March period, the Gunmakers’ Company changed its Army Cadet Force affiliation from 2 Company, City of London and North East Sector (CoLNES) to 25 PWRR, which reports to 2 Company.

This new relationship was formalised at the Gunmakers’ Summer Banquet on 24^th June. The Master and Colonel Wendy Adams, ACF, Commandant of CoLNES, signed a Certificate of Affiliation, and the Gunmakers’ Shield was presented to 25 PWRR, to be competed for at shooting. Liaison with 25 PWRR is through its Detachment Commander, Sergeant Jason Muleba, ACF, but contact has been maintained at arms’ length with 2 Company via its new Officer Commanding, Major Stedroy Allen, ACF. Sergeant Muleba was selected as the Best Detachment Commander in CoLNES in March 2026.

Affiliation liaison has benefitted from moving to a smaller Unit, as it is easier to build up and maintain personal contacts. 25 PWRR is the second-oldest Cadet Unit in the country, dating back to the origins of the Cadet movement in the 19^th Century. 25 PWRR belongs to the regimental family of the Princess of Wales Royal Regiment (nicknamed ‘The Tigers’), so inheriting the lineage, history, and ‘Tiger’ traditions of the senior English line infantry regiment in the British Army. The Gunmakers’ Company will formalise its affiliation with the 1^st Battalion, PWRR at its Nomination Dinner in November.

Major Stedroy Allen, ACF (left), Officer Commanding 2 Company, and Sergeant Jason Muleba, ACF (second from right), Detachment Commander 25 Detachment PWRR, with Two 25 PWRR Cadets, on Summer Camp at Okehampton Training Camp, Devon, August 2026

The Master visited all three of the Gunmakers’ affiliated Cadet Units over the period of 7^th to 27^th May. She witnessed a parade and classroom exercises at 25 PWRR and at 31 Squadron, and went afloat at Royal Docks Watersports to watch West Ham Sea Cadets engage in sailing and power boat training – which she particularly enjoyed, given that sailing is her hobby. In each case she addressed the assembled Cadets to praise them on becoming Cadets and so opening themselves up to achieving the life skills that being a Cadet offers, and to emphasise the Gunmakers’ commitment to them and to their Unit.

In May the Gunmakers’ Company was able to congratulate West Ham Sea Cadets’ Officer Commanding, Petty Officer (SCC) Nicola Barratt. Her Unit had just achieved the Cleverly Award, the Sea Cadet Corps’ national trophy for the best Junior Sea Cadet section (Cadets aged 10 to 12) in the United Kingdom, as well as a prestigious Captain’s Commendation announced by the Captain of the Sea Cadet Corps. This Unit’s Junior Sea Cadet section, grown from having only two Junior Sea Cadets (out of 14 Cadets in total) when the Gunmakers’ Company affiliated with the West Ham Sea Cadets in 2023, now numbers almost half the Unit’s overall strength of 39 Cadets.

A West Ham Sea Cadet ‘Pipes The Side’ on a Boatswain’s Call to Welcome Senior Officers Aboard the Unit.

All three affiliated Cadet Units participated in the inaugural Cadet Enterprise Challenge, organised by the Fletchers’ Company, on 4^th July. Of the fifteen teams competing, five were entered via the Gunmakers: two each by 25 PWRR and by 31 Squadron RAFAC; the West Ham Sea Cadets entered one team via the Gunmakers and a second one via their other affiliated Company, the Chartered Secretaries and Administrators. Every team in the Challenge, of four Cadets plus an adult supervisor, took on a series of 20-minute widely-varied challenges, moving around six Livery Company Halls. The final Challenge event was a Cadet version of the Coopers’ traditional Cask Race, held in Guildhall Yard. The day ended with a reception and prize giving for all participants hosted at Mansion House by the Lady Mayor.

The Lady Mayor Presents One of 31 (Tower Hamlets) Squadron RAFAC’s Two Cadet Enterprise Challenge Teams with Their Certificate of Achievement at Mansion House.

Flight Lieutenant Labib Khan, RAFAC, Officer Commanding 31 Squadron RAFAC, was invited to Livery Lunch 6 at the Proof House on 16^th July. He brought with him the pair of Scorpion Cadet Mk.4 air rifles presented to his Squadron in January to have them laser-engraved to mark their donation by the Gunmakers’ Company and the Gunmakers’ Trust. The Master presented the engraved air rifles back to Flight Lieutenant Khan.