Army Cadet Force

The Army Cadet Force (ACF), generally shortened to Army Cadets, is a British national youth organisation sponsored by the United Kingdom's Ministry of Defence and the British Army. Along with the Sea Cadet Corps and the Air Training Corps, the ACF make up the Community Cadet Forces. It is a separate organisation from the Combined Cadet Force which provides similar training within principally private schools.

Although sponsored by the Ministry of Defence, the ACF is not part of the British Army, and as such cadets are not subject to military law or military 'call up' but is funded by the MOD. Some cadets do, however, go on to enlist in the armed forces later in life.

The Army Cadet Charitable Trust UK (ACCT UK) is a registered charity that acts in an advisory role to the Ministry of Defence and other Government bodies on matters connected with the ACF.

As of 1 April 2023, there are 38,180 cadets, and 8,020 Cadet Force Adult Volunteers (CFAVs).

In 1859 the British Army was heavily committed to suppressing the Indian Mutiny which left a shortage of Armed Troops in Britain to dissuade or repel a French invasion which at the time was a very real threat. At this time the War Office made the decision to organize local Militia units (predecessors of the Territorial Army), into a nationwide Volunteer Reserve Force which it names "the Volunteers". A number of these Volunteers formed their own Cadet Companies, and during the 1860 Volunteer review by Queen Victoria one unit - the Queen's Westminster's - paraded their Cadet Company alongside their adult Companies.

In 1889 renowned social reformer Octavia Hill formed the first independent Cadet Battalion in Southwark. She considered strongly that the military context of the Volunteer Cadet Companies could be used to socialise urban youths struggling for direction, and wrote that "There is no organisation which I have found that influences the boys so powerfully for good as our cadets ... and if such ideals can be brought before the young lad before he gets in with a gang of loafers it may make all the difference to his life". At this time recruitment for the Cadet Forces was limited to young men "who had passed the age of make-believe"; Hill invited a serving officer of the Derbyshire Regiment to set up the company, and such was its popularity that its numbers had to be capped at 160 cadets.

The late Victorian period was when the time of social change began to take hold in Britain and Adam Gray - who was considered to be a pioneer in Social Work - founded Independent Cadet Corps units. The formation of Cadet units also spread to the colonies. The Bermuda Cadet Corps was formed at the turn of the century with detachments in the schools of the British Army's Bermuda Garrison and the Royal Navy's dockyard, as well as a handful of civilian schools; its cadets wore the cap badge of the Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps, to which the Bermuda Cadet Corps was attached.

In 1908, when the Territorial Force was formed, both the Volunteer and Independent Cadet Companies came under the control of the Territorial Forces Association under the new name of the Cadet Force, whilst the Public School units were part of the Officer Training Corps.