Page 96 - MERCIAN Eagle 2022

Long Eaton & West Notts Branch
Mark Dack, Member
On the evening of Saturday
7th May, Long Eaton and West
Notts Branch members were on parade at Nottingham Castle for a memorial service for the anniversary of the death of Albert Ball VC. Sir John Peace, The Lord Lieutenant
of Nottinghamshire, was joined
by The Lord Mayor and Sheriff of Nottingham at the service. Thank you to the RAF Association, The Robin Hood Rifles Corp of Drums, Sooty Denham, Damo Cowlishaw and John Sansom for parading the Long Eaton & West Notts Standard, WFRA Area Standard and 3 WFR Standard and Peter Roebuck and David Brown for providing the Bugle calls.
The Sherwood Foresters Officers’ Club (SFOC)
Lt Col (Retd) Roger Stockton OBE. Chair
On Saturday 8 October 2022, 60 retired officers, their wives and widows and children of the Regiment attended
the final dinner night of the Sherwood Foresters Officers’ Club in the splendid surroundings of the Indian Army Room in Old College, Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. On arrival guests drove
past the recently unveiled and floodlit statue of Her Late Majesty The Queen mounted on Burmese. LCpl Derby XXXII was on parade inside the Grand Entrance to greet guests as they arrived and a pre-dinner reception was held in the Waterloo Room, giving everyone the opportunity to tell tales of yore.
The Officers’ Mess Call was played
by Musician Delgado of the RMAS
Band and the official guests, the Lord Lieutenants of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire and their spouses were escorted to dinner by the Chairman,
Lt Col Roger Stockton and Mrs Stockton and the Secretary, Maj Mike Tulloch and Mrs Tulloch. Dinner included Beef Wellington, in honour of the 45th of Foot, Wellington’s Redcoats, who served under command of the Duke in the Peninsula from 1808 to 1815. The Club
drank a toast to His Majesty The King for the first time as well as Absent Friends and The Regiment.
The Chairman gave a short address ending with a reading of the Dedication from the Regimental History:
To Those
Upon whose knees there lies
The Future and whate’er it brings All that the slumb’ring years yet hold of joy or sorrow, dross or gold. Honour - Reward - the Sacrifice - The Arrows and the Slings.
Or Those
Who’ve trod the Parting Ways
And left the Larger Life behind,
To whom the years that are no more and names of friends long gone before Bring Memories of the Golden Days When Fortune aye was kind:
To young - or old - to hale - or spent To all who love The Regiment.
In summary an emotive night but a fitting way to end 281 years of service to the Crown.
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Derby Branch
Alan Derbyshire, Chair
We start with the sad news of the loss of our long-standing Treasurer, John Pottinger who passed away in August 2022. John was a valued and respected member of the Branch, taking on the post of Treasurer, a post in which he excelled. He will be missed by all members. A number of our members are suffering health problems, so we send our best wishes and look forward to seeing them once again.
The Branch continues to flourish, with an increase in membership, due in part to a post being inserted on Face Book advising people to apply for the WFRA Membership Card, to which a positive response was received, and also helped by members actively recruiting.
We congratulate Mick Doyle and John Higginbottom on receipt of their well- deserved Merit Awards, awarded at the WFRA AGM. Our Annual Dinner, organised by Gordon Carran and assisted by his small committee, again proved to be a most enjoyable evening with an excellent meal and good company, with our friends from the Royal Marines Association again gracing us with their presence. As always the
raffle was excellent, and we thank all who
provided prizes. In October we held a much asked for Curry Lunch at the Mount Everest Gurkha Restaurant in Derby. The owner, yet again, did us proud and all commented on how much they enjoyed the afternoon. We decided that this year, as a thank you to all members who have continued to support us during the past troubled times, the meal would be paid for from Branch Funds. Our thanks go to Josephine Brown, wife of one of our members, who obtained for the raffle, a Hamper from the Co-op Funeral Service who we thank for their generous gift. In
his normal efficient way Paul Derbyshire organised the event. For the second time, a member of the Derbyshire clan won the Hamper! One wonders if next year it will be the Chairman, making it a hat trick? Branch
Standards and members attended the annual Remembrance Parades, the schools parade in Chaddesden Park, Soldiers Corner in Nottingham Road Cemetery,
and Remembrance Sunday at their own locations.
Due to the closure of the Rolls Royce Club we have had to move the venue. Information regarding meetings can
be found on the regimental sites on Facebook. Derby Branch welcomes all former members of WFR, the antecedent regiments, former members and those currently serving in the Mercian Regiment. We extend our best wishes to the other Associations and the serving members of the Mercian Regiment.
THE MERCIAN EAGLE