The history of the Army Cadet Movement in the City of Barrie stretches back to 20 May 1899, when corps number 52 was first opened in Barrie Collegiate.
The purpose of the cadets at that time was to provide a means of training young boys over the age of 12 in drill and physical fitness, in 1908 the Department of National Defence formed a cadre of Commissioned Officers, The Cadet Services of Canada, made up of school teachers whom the Department of National Defence trained and paid, to conduct physical training and drill in their schools.
On 30 July 1975, an Act of Parliament replaced the word “boys” with “persons” in the pertinent legislation, thereby finally permitting girls to become members of the cadet organization. The first girl enrolled in 2919 was Rebecca Light, who went on to later command the cadet corps.
As years went by, other schools in Barrie took up the challenge and opened cadet corps of their own. This saw the formation of Army Cadet Corps numbers 912 and 2667, over the years since the end of the Second World War and the Korean war, interest in the cadet movement slowly waned and with the many cutbacks in government funding, the cadet movement could no longer support the large number of school corps.
With unification of the Canadian Forces in 1968, the cadet movement was re-assigned and became a body of the of the Canadian Forces and it’s officers became members of that organization.
On 1 November 1973 the present cadet corps was founded as number 2919 Royal Canadian Army Cadets and sponsored by the county Militia Regiment, The Grey & Simcoe Foresters, “B” Company. Under the approval of then Major E.A. Fuller CD, who commanded B Company. Major Fuller later commanded the Regiment as a Lieutenant Colonel.
With the re-structuring of the Grey & Simcoe Foresters Militia Regiment in 1997, the old “A” Company in Owen Sound and “B” Company in Barrie were disbanded and re-formed into the present “Training and Mission” Companies under the command of Lieutenant Colonel G.C. Mann, thus the sponsorship of the Army Cadet Corps came under the Regiment.
Although 2919 was founded in 1973 our history reaches back over 100 years in the City of Barrie, making it one of the oldest continuously operated Army Cadet organizations in Canada. There are a number of Corps who were formed earlier than the Barrie Corps, but not many who can claim to have run without a break for so long.
