SEA CADETS TRAFALGAR DAY PARADE 2018

On Sunday, 21st October 2018, Sea Cadets showcased their rigging, physical training, drill, band and even singing skills during a spectacular day in London. 

Beforehand, cadets and volunteers taking part in the Trafalgar Day Parade, set off from all over Northern Area to practise and rehearse rigorously at HMS EXCELLENT in Portsmouth. Early morning on Trafalgar Day they made their way to the capital as they played a leading role in proceedings as the guard and even the band.

The Battle of Trafalgar was a naval engagement fought by the Royal Navy against the combined fleets of the French and Spanish Navies, during the War of the Third Coalition of the Napoleonic Wars. 21 October 1805.

Nelson’s devastating victory was that rarest of achievements in Naval warfare – a truly strategic, decisive victory affording the Royal Navy complete freedom of manoeuvre around the periphery of Napoleon’s empire.

It was this freedom that would, in the ensuing years, allow the British to deploy and sustain their forces – and those of her allies – across Europe. Wellington and Napoleon alike would come to recognise the role of Sea power in first halting the advance of the French Grand Armée and ultimately in setting the conditions for Napoleon’s final defeat.

Sunday morning, 21st. October, hundreds of cadets from all over the United Kingdom assembled in London, to march from Horse Guards Parade to Trafalgar Square, the annual solemn ceremony in commemoration of the Battle of Trafalgar, a tradition which dates back more than 200 years.