Page 17 - RADC 2016

CORPS ACTIVITIES
Chelsea Founder’s Day – 09 Jun 2016
LCpl Chimbunde
Heroes, Royalty, Celebrities, Love and some amazing belly dancers sums up the Chelsea Founder’s Day 2016.
A day spent in the presence of Heroes, Royalty, Celebrities and Family, good weather and some amazing belly dancers! A one in a million chance sums up the Chelsea Founder’s Day 2016. It was like going to
the races, the ladies were dressed to kill with matching hats and out ts, it really felt like we had descended into another planet where the dress code was out of this world. The Pensioners that we met were all smiles and spoke to us as if they had known us
for years. A day lled with Love, love for the Army, love for the heroes and the sacri ces that they made, love between the carers and the pensioners that they looked after.
This is the highlight of the Royal Hospital Chelsea calendar. An event that is attended by all Chelsea pensioners to celebrate the founding of the Royal Hospital by King Charles 11 in 1681. The Founder’s day is also known as Oak Apple Day. The Oak reference commemorates the escape of
the future King Charles II after the battle of Worcester (1651) when he hid in an oak tree to avoid capture by
the Parliamentary forces. This is remembered by all Chelsea Pensioners wearing oak leaves on their famous scarlet uniforms. The Royal Chelsea Hospital is home
to about 300 (of those 12 are women) pensioners and the oldest being 101 years (seriously!).
Tradition has it that a member of the Royal Family attends each year, for this year we
This is remembered by all Chelsea Pensioners wearing oak leaves...
had the honour and privilege of having her Royal Highness, Princess Anne dressed in an immaculate light blue suit, to inspect the pensioners.
After the parade and music from the band it was now time to meet and mingle with friends and family for eating, drinking, dancing, listening to music and just having a merry time. For the Royal Army Dental Corps representatives, we had the pleasure of spending the day with our very own
ex RADC (hygienist) WO1 (CRSM) Terry Abbott. We found Tab and his brand new state of the art wheels after looking for him for ages. He told us about his daughter
and 2 grandchildren and life as a Chelsea pensioner. He is only the second member of the RADC to live in the Hospital. We had a fantastic day of laughter, dancing and loads
of food.
We even got the chance to meet Linda
Robinson one of the panellist from Loose Women and actress best known for her role as Tracy in BBC comedy Birds of a feather. She kindly agreed to take a picture with us, she was so down to earth.
I urge you all to consider attending as this a chance worth grabbing with both hands, I will be knocking on Maj Sharp’s door in the future hoping that I get another chance to experience this day again.
For those who would like to spend
their old age in such a wonderful place, reminiscing over old times and with likeminded people then the Chelsea Royal Hospital is a must. The staff are out of this world and most of them are ex-military.
RADC BULLETIN 2016 15