Opening of National Cadet Museum Rooms

Opening of National Cadet Museum Rooms

The National Army Cadet Force (ACF) Museum – Official Opening

Victoria Cross winner, WO2 Johnson Beharry opened the National Army Cadet Force Museum in Octavia Hill’s Birthplace House, Wisbech on 11th Sept 2023 to mark Octavia’s legacy from 1889 when she established the first Independent Army Cadet Unit.

Portrait

Wisbech born (1838) Octavia Hill’s pioneering work in Southwark, London with youngsters in 1889 lead the way to the modern day Army Cadet Force (ACF) as we know it today. Octavia Hill was a well known social reformer, one of the three founders of the National Trust and a campaigner for open spaces but is largely unknown for her work with the Army Cadets.

Guests included:
Brigadier Tim Seal Vice, Lord-Lieutenant of Cambridgeshire
The High Sheriff of Cambridgeshire
Colonel Ashley Fulford, National Colonel Cadets at Regional Command
Brigadier Richard Lyne, Royal Anglian Regt
The Mayor and Mayoress of Wisbech
Veterans from Wisbech Royal British Legion

 

Brigadier Seal read out a letter received from Buckingham Place acknowledging the new National Army Cadet Force Museum and Octavia’s pioneering work with the Cadets.

letter from Buckingham Palace

After the opening WO2 Beharry gave a truly amazing talk on “how he won the Victoria Cross”.

Local Cadets from Wisbech Detachment and children from nearby Cambian Wisbech School had the opportunity to meet WO2 Johnson Beharry VC COG and help him plant a tree on Centenary Green to commemorate the occasion.

 

The ACF Museum displays a range of uniforms, traces the ACF time line from 1889 to the present day, manuals, and a “touch screen” for videos, photographs and You Tube links. A virtual tour with information points has been created for Cadets unable to visit the museum in person on our Cadet page, click here