Page 38 - QDG Year of 2020

36 1st The Queen’s Dragoon Guards
Officers’ Mess
2Lts Fulloway, Al-Khameri and Upward being ’bloodied’ on the Mess shoot
Lts Cooper and Rixson stealing the silverware
2020 has been a difficult year for everyone, but the Officers’ Mess has remained stalwart in its role as the home of the QDG’s young officers and the guardians of the Regiment’s historical treasures. January saw the Mess Shoot take place on the Keith’s neighbouring estate, the return of the Winter Sports teams from Switzerland and France and the arrival of 4 newly commissioned 2Lts who were thrust immediately into the fray with Ex WESSEX STORM as a recce for their Crew Comd’s course.
On return from exercise in March, COVID was in full swing, and the Officers’ Mess formed their household in the safe confines of rural Norfolk, with a host of new rules and regulations to comply with to remain COVID secure. This led
2Lt Dillon ‘improving’ the mess furniture
to some ingenious ways of keeping fit and active. Notably the ‘Officers Press’ garage gym and outdoor
fitness sessions designed
by Lts Brockless and Lewis, as well as Swanton Morley’s first 9 hole golf course, designed by our long-suf- fering Gardens Member, Lt Cooper.
Many of the mess
members took up interesting
hobbies, Lt Barham as a
budding mechanic fixing
his kit car, whilst Lt Maxwell
and 2Lt Dillon borrowed
some tools from their Sqn
Ldr to ‘fix’ the garden furniture. Spike Ball made its first appearance, and is
Lt Maxwell stocking up for lockdown!
Lts Lewis and Groome having a rough day
now considered an outdoor alternative to Squash, and Wimbledon was brought to Norfolk this year in the tennis courts next to the mess. April saw the arrival of 3 more 2Lts to the mess ranks and we started to get up to full Platoon strength of living in members. With Cavalry Memorial weekend cancelled in London, the mess conducted its own remembrance parade, with Capt Campbell playing a faultless Last Post on the mess trumpet, followed by a socially distanced lunch in
the back garden.
By June however the Regiment was
Capts Kite, Russell and Hind reflecting after a tough exercise
2Lt Dillon borrowed some tools to ‘fix’ the garden furniture