65th CCF Annual Review
On 29 April 2023, Loughborough Schools Foundation celebrated our 65th Combined Cadet Force (CCF) Annual Review! Over 230 cadets from the Army, RAF and Navy took part. This year membership to join the CCF has been offered to Year 10 High School girls giving them the opportunity to experience the full four-year cadet experience, alongside their Grammar School counterparts for the first time in the Contingent’s history.
The Foundation was delighted to welcome Colonel Robert Martin OBE, Deputy Lieutenant, to receive the General Salute and Loughburian, Brigadier Guy Foden (LGS 1994) as our Reviewing Officer.
Colonel Martin is County President of the Royal British Legion, President of St. John’s Ambulance and President for Scouting in the Leicestershire. His father was Chair of Governors and opened Burton Hall in 1991!
Brigadier Guy Foden left LGS in 1994 and went on to gain his Commission into the Royal Anglian Regiment, within the Second Battalion – The Poachers; a name familiar to our Army cadets given that 2 Platoon of B Company take their title from this Battalion.
As a young officer, Brigadier Foden was deployed on operational tours of Northern Ireland, Afghanistan and Iraq before moving on to become a staff officer in 12th Mechanized Brigade responsible for intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance. After being selected to command C Company in the First Battalion – The Vikings (from whom 1 platoon take their title), he led his troops in Helmand on Op Herrick 16 and subsequently took on the responsibility of managing counter-terrorism in Pakistan, and amongst other postings, the hunt for missing Malaysian airliner MH370 and the evacuation of non-combatants in operations based in Africa, the Balkans and Ukraine.
Following promotion to Lieutenant Colonel and command of the First Battalion, his role extended to defence engagement activity around the globe, with a particular focus on West Africa, before serving as the Military Assistant to the Commander of the Field Army. Since then, he has led the Army’s support to the response to the COVID pandemic, was appointed Assistant Head Organisation in Army Headquarters, where he led the team that completed the Future Soldier restructuring of the Army, and is now Commander of 7 Brigade, the Desert Rats.
Very well done to all the pupils in the Army who won this year’s Drill Competition and the famous Gun Run with an incredible time of 2 minutes and 12 seconds!
