Page 88 - The Light Dragoon 2024

The Regimental Journal of The Light Dragoons
Mess life is in full flow and high spirits. The fire burns in the ante room, the silver sparkles, the fines book is almost full and no matter what is happening anywhere in the world; subalterns sink into deep armchairs and scorn their lot. But mess life is never simply confined to the building itself and what a year it has been, all across Europe and across the world, to be an officer in the Light Dragoons.
The mess teed off with a winter ball in January. Flashes of Austrian weave charmed their way through the abundance of beautiful ball gowns, with conversation flowing as freely as the spirits through the icy head of an Assaye elephant. The Mess’ first international engagement of the year was in Estonia, where RHQ, A and B Sqn were taking part in Exercise Spring Storm. Success on the battlefield was swiftly followed up with equal success on the social front. The well-earned post exercise ‘downtime’ concluded with no fewer than 18 Light Dragoon officers descending upon Tallinn for a mess dinner in the town square, under the cool glow of a spring moon. The officers of the Guards and the Empire trading oratory blows about who outperformed who on the exercise, their OCs watching on with pride, amidst the general bewilderment of passing locals. The timing of this high-level defence engagement meant the officers of
The Messes Officers’ Mess
the Legion were alone in tasting that first spring rosé at the Hollywood arms, after parading for Cav Mem. A task they relished and performed admirably in representing the serving regiment.
The Mess had little time between deployments, a mere five weeks before departing for Germany
as a regiment, and in that time much work had to be completed for the summer
ball. The theme: The Fall of the Berlin Wall. A DIY endeavour
like no other was undertaken
by the subalterns. In addition to decking the marquee as the Kit Kat Club, complete with mood-lit pool, and building an 18-foot- high Brandenburg gate, a 30 by
12 foot wall was constructed, made of solid wood. Maj Thirlaway, rounding the corner and seeing what he believed to be the real Berlin, burst into tears, “I have finished where I started” he remarked. After bursting through the wall, under the watchful eyes of East German sentries, the LDs quickly wrote themselves off to
the dulcet tones of Maj Freeman up on stage.
The whole regiment then deployed to Paderborn, that hallowed place, and bunked up for Combined Arms Tactical Training. Work was done at a sociable pace and left plenty of time for bratwurst and steins, soaked up with more cigars. The entire regiment benefitted from this blast from the past; gorgeous weather, a cheap bar on camp, first- class sporting facilities and the time and spirit to get stuck into them all. The trip coincided with Paderborn’s own Libori beer festival, which also provided a very useful backdrop for hosting the brigade staff in the old Wehrmacht Mess. Morale was excep- tionally high, the Mess was as close knit as a Shetland sweater, the
culture was palpable.
Riding on this wave of optimism, the subalterns began on a crusade to make their own fun. Over a few glasses of wine one evening, it was decided that a new club should be formed: the Officers’ Mess
Blacktie Tuesdays
Lt Elkington visits an Estonian barber
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