Contingents
On 12 May 1859, the Secretary of State for War sent out a circular letter to the public schools and Universites inviting them to form units of the Volunteer Corps. Arguably, the first school cadet corps was established at Rossall School in February 1860, initially as an army contingent only. Felsted already had an armed drill contingent at the time of the War Office letter under the command of Sgt. Major Rogers RM; its claim on these grounds to be the oldest school corps was upheld by Field Marshal Earl Roberts in a letter to the Headmaster of 1904. Other corps were very quickly formed in 1860 at five further schools: Eton, Harrow, Hurstpierpoint, Rugby and Tonbridge; in the absence of further evidence it seems fair to say that all seven schools should be equally credited with seniority, with a given date of 1860. In 1908, the units were re-titled the Officer Training Corps (OTC) A school contingent may have any combination of Royal Navy, Army, Royal Air Force and sometimes Royal Marines sections, the army section is almost invariably the largest.
Read more about this topic: Combined Cadet Force