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#1926 Cadet Corps

1943

North Shore College was a small private residential school for boys located in North Vancouver, B.C. It was opened in January 1926 by Mr. Paul T. Dale and Mr. Lance C. Storr, two former teachers from Kingsley School in North Vancouver (see CC #1925). Before he became a teacher, Lance Storr was a British Army Captain who attended Sandhurst in the U.K. and went on to serve in Persia (Iran) in the Middle East. 
When North Shore College was chosen as one of five North Vancouver schools to form a new army cadet corps for the start of the school year in September of 1940 , Capt (Ret’d) Storr became the “Instructor” (Commanding Officer). 
The corps started parading on schedule in September 1940, but like two other North Vancouver school cadet corps, it was not registered in Ottawa until February 12, 1943. This would explain why the cadets had not been issued uniforms or rifles until September 1943. 

 

Photo-North Vancouver Museum and Archives (NVMA) #28-100

#1926 – The North Shore College Cadet Corps in 1940 wearing their school uniforms. Army cadet uniforms had not been issued yet and the cadets used wood dowels for practicing their rifle drill. They would have to wait until 1943 for their cadet uniforms and rifles to appear because someone likely didn’t do the paperwork required to get the corps registered with Army Headquarters, Ottawa.

Front row L-R: Peter Birch-Jones, David Howden, Capt (Ret’d) Lance Storr, Desmond Archibald, Arnold Watson. Second row: Michael Calloway, Frank Paddon, John Murray, Peter Hunting, Peter Price, Dan Considine, Michael Hobbs, John Diplock, Murray Williams, Dick Hallaway. Third row: Ian Fisher, George Pinsky, Peter Roberts, Brian Iverson, Donald Codville, Miles Heyworth, Gordon Archibald. Back row: Andy Westland, Digby Jones, Alan Brooks, Barry Jeffries, Don Laird, Lynn Borrelli, Gerald Buck, Ian Gibson.

 

 

 

Photo - NVMA 28-97                         Photo - NVMA 28-93

Cadets parade on the school grounds in 1940.

Capt (Ret’d) Lance Storr left the college in the early 1940s and Captain J.R. Horne-Payne took command of the corps. Capt Horne-Payne was an officer with the Cadet Services of Canada.

Photo – NVMA 28-109

North Shore College Cadet Corps in 1943. After three years in existence, there were a few new faces and a few had left, the corps had a new “Instructor”, new cadet uniforms with proper badges and insignia, and drill purpose rifles with which to train.
Front row: Alder, Michael Hobbs, Gordon Archibald, Peter Roberts, Bill Kinley, Captain JR Horne-Payne, Ian Fisher, Donald Codville, Peter West, George Pinsky, Miles Heyworth, Gerald Buck, Flesher. Back row: Britton, Scoones, New, Parker, Van Heel, Moore, Chernieski, Butterfield, Westerland, May, North. (3 cadets unidentified)

Photo – NVMA 28-101

Cadets formed up in Confederation Park, North Vancouver in 1943 during a day of training. The park would have been a 30 minute march from North Shore College. 

Cadets Scoones and Butterfield with a “Drill Purpose” Bren Gun.

Photo – NVMA 28-102 

 

                       

Photo-NVMA 28-103                             Photo-NVMA 28-104

Cadet Ian Fisher practicing rifle drill                                   Cadet Bill Kinley practices Semaphore.
with a wood “rifle”. Real rifles were                                                                                                       
needed at the Front.                                                                                                   


#1926 - North Shore College Cadet Corps was disbanded on 19 August 1947, the same year Paul T. Dale, one of the original founders of the school passed away. The school was permanently closed in 1956.


On 10 September 1939, Canada joined Great Britain in declaring war against Germany. In February 1940, public school teachers were required to take an Oath of Allegiance. In July of that year, hundreds of school cadet corps were created. 
The Government of the Dominion of Canada instructed the Provinces to conduct mandatory cadet instruction involving “Infantry squad and platoon drill without arms”. It determined the army cadet program was a way to promote national pride and foster an interest in the armed forces at a time when recruiting young people into active service was a high priority. 
In British Columbia, the Department of Education, through the Council of Public Instruction, sent out a “Routing Circular” making army cadet training compulsory as part of the school curriculum. The Staff Officer in charge of the corps and the School Principal were authorized to grant exemption to boys from serving in a cadet corps based on religious grounds. The School Board created five new army cadet corps in North Vancouver to start off the school term in September. Registration with Ottawa would follow, in some cases several years after the fact.

(Capt Bob Irvine)