Freedom of the Borough awarded to TS Brilliant
TS Brilliant, Royal Tunbridge Wells Sea Cadets and Royal Marines Cadets, has been awarded the Freedom of the Borough by the council.
The award has special significance as TS Brilliant is celebrating its 90th anniversary this year, 2025.
At their meeting in February councillors voted unanimously to honour TS Brilliant with the Freedom of the Borough and invited them to attend the council meeting on 23 April to accept the award.
Cmdre Barry Bryant CVO Royal Navy accepted the honour on behalf of TS Brilliant. Lt Cdr (SCC) Jonathan Vanns MCGI, FIOL, Royal Naval Reserve, then thanked the council and said: ‘We are honoured and delighted to accept this award that has been earned by generations of cadets since 1935, that many have served their town, and often their country with pride and distinction. We look forward to exercising the right to march through the town with colours flying later in the year when the award is presented.’
Paul Taylor, Director of Change and Communities, TWBC said: ‘I am very pleased that the council has chosen to recognise TS Brilliant with this award. The unit does great work in supporting young people locally and in giving them the opportunity to develop skills that will stand them in good stead as they go forward in life.’
In October 2025, during their anniversary year, TS Brilliant will host West Kent District Sea Cadets for the annual Trafalgar Day Parade. Some 250 sea cadets, junior sea cadets and Royal Marines cadets will take part in the parade to commemorate both the 90th anniversary and the 220th anniversary of The Battle of Trafalgar. Veteran Standard Bearers and a detachment of former TS Brilliant cadets and staff will join them. The Freedom of the Borough will be formally presented at this event.
About TS Brilliant
TS Brilliant is made up of around 60 sea cadets, Royal Marine cadets, and a naval band. The unit aims to give young people, aged 9 to 18, an experience that will help them grow into the person they want to be in a safe and friendly environment. Through various activities and adventures, they learn teamwork, respect, loyalty, self-confidence, commitment, self-discipline, honesty and how to be the best version of themselves.
The borough’s first affiliation to HMS Brilliant came about during Warship Week in 1942. In 1982, shortly after the Falkland’s War, the ship and her company were granted the Freedom of the Borough, which she exercised on a number of occasions, with TS Brilliant also taking part, up to her decommissioning in 1996.
About the Freedom of the Borough
The Honorary Freedom of the Borough is the highest award the council can give to an individual or corporate body. The award is not often made and is normally only conferred on local people who have made a significant contribution to the locality or have achieved something outstanding. The last time the council made the award to an organisation was in 2023 to Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust and prior to that to the Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment in 2013.
