Page 48 - The KRH Year of 2023 (CREST Sharing)

48 The Regimental Journal of The King’s Royal Hussars
The Corporals’ Mess
The last journal entry was closed with a few ‘future com- mitments’ these included a visit to The Royal Hospital of Chelsea and a summer function. This past year the Cpls’ Mess made every effort to impress this was not only because of a great committee but the members leaning in more than ever. We welcomed newly promoted and said our farewells to many fantastic JNCO’s be it for promotion or transitioning to Civ Div.
Due to deployment on OP CABRIT 11 a lot of the groundwork for upcoming functions/events were organised solely via email (we thought about using TACSAT as we all know ‘G6 gets chicks’ however we settled for email) which proved dif- ficult however Cpl R Whitfield used all the spare time he had to build bridges with RHC, this later led us to incorporating it into the JNCO development week – Project Medicina.
Project Medicina, where to begin? The idea of it was brought to the committee just before CMR in June, we had a few initial ideas and formed a small group of willing individuals to head up these tasks. Cpl R. Whitfield (RHC), Cpl D. Hatton & Cpl R. Evers (Career improvement/personal development), Cpl A. Woodhouse & Cpl G. Border (Go Ape) & Cpl S. Hanser (Guest speaker). As you can all imagine being at CMR and then roll- ing into Ex IRON CYCLONE also adding in a well-deserved Summer leave period – this was a bit of a squeeze however we managed it and it was a week where many got something out of it, this also enables future development to be improved going forward, I mean who wouldn’t want to be off the tank park for a week?
Howdy Partner, the Cpls’ Mess summer function (if you had not guessed Cowboy themed) was a phenomenal way to finish Project Medicina it was held at Cholderton Charlie’s Farm a
A few too many at this point
good find by the PEC. We swapped our crimsons for boot-cut jeans and our berets for Cowboy hats; some even rode horses into battle – albeit inflatable but still all the same!
We have seen many new faces within the Cpls’ Mess and many are already looking forward to the daily tea & toast (because as we all know as long as there is toast nothing else matters) and upcoming mess functions. The Cpls’ mess is a fantastic place for not only socialising but also networking, encouraging our members to lean in much like the WOs’ & Sgts’ Mess and gives that stepping stone into their way of mess life, as I am sure many strive to be there one day.
December is the month everyone looks forward to, eating too much, drinking too much, and trying to avoid thinking about the return in January and the dreaded first PT session – hang- ing out at the back and pretending to encourage the last man. But before all of that, we had the Cpls’ Mess function held at the Bombay Sapphire Gin Distillery, a great evening enjoyed by all, examples of the above were displayed! Food, gin, dancing, and pictures of sleeping beauty (Cpl S. Mayer) who was seen paying the coach driver £20 just to turn the radio on whilst returning to Aliwal Barracks! Cpl R. Whitfield invited his father Jason along for the ride as an ex-Squaddie (drop short) it was great to see him mingling with the younger lads and spin some all-important dits! As always Cpl P. Quayle adopted his go-to pose, maybe he’ll remember that one when he clears his throat for the 100th time within 5 minutes.
Hopefully, next year is as eventful as this one, we have plenty more in the pipeline – providing actual soldiering does not hin-
der our plans!
AW