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Marlborough College was one of the four ‘founder schools’ of the cadet movement, the first uniforms being issued in 1861. A badge was struck - ‘Marlborough College Cadet Corps’ - and light grey uniforms soon earned the cadets the nickname, the ‘Millers’.
Assistance was provided by instructors from the Wiltshire Regiment whose nearest depot was Le Marchant Barracks in Devizes. The Wiltshire Regiment went on to merge with the Berkshires and formed the Duke of Edinburgh’s Royal Regiment; they wore a blue beret with a red ‘Brandywine Flash’. This Regiment, in turn, later merged with the Glosters to form the Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Regiment or RGBW denoted by a blue beret, Brandywine Flash, Egypt cap badge and Glosters back badge.
In recent decades, Marlborough College cadets have been uniformed with a rifle green beret. No direct link with the Rifle Brigade has ever been found so this may have been on the whim of an RSM. Cadets have also worn the ‘New College Badge’ of 1948 (originally in brass, then ‘staybright’) and the red Brandywine Flash of the Berkshire Regiment.
The Contingent Commander and RSM decided that the uniform of the Marlborough College CCF needed some change - a change to reflect Marlborough’s distinctive history in the cadet movement. Very few schools have the privilege of wearing their own cap badge and we wished to change to an affiliation based not on geographical location but on pupil destination. Statistically, serving Old Marlburians have chosen the Cavalry and Guards ahead of all other Army destinations and we were therefore delighted when the Household Division accepted our request to affiliate with them.
A ‘Millers’ Platoon has now been re-formed to reflect the earliest origins of Marlborough cadets. The original 1861 cap badge, which was preserved in a wall display in the College, has been re-cast and issued in a heavy bronze-type metal. Remove cadets now wear a bob cap bearing the inscription ‘septem junta in uno’ (‘seven joined as one’) to reflect the five regiments of Foot Guards plus the two regiments of the Household Cavalry, while the older cadets are privileged to wear the Guards’ buff beret bearing the original 1861 Marlborough College cap badge set against the blue-red-blue flash of the Household Division.
We were delighted to receive Major General Roberts on May 9th to formally hand over the Guards beret on behalf of the Foot Guards and we hope the link so formed will be long and successful. |