Page 198 - Rifles 2017 Issue No 3

A SEARCH IS UNDERWAY FOR A LUNCH COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN
Sunday 9th July 2017
The 2017 LI Club Summer Lunch was again held in the garden of the Wardrobe, the RIFLES (Berkshire and Wiltshire) Museum, Salisbury on Sunday 9th July. 93 members attended among whom were many regulars along remaining faithful to promises made last year. Among new faces, it was good to see Rob Shepherd and Chris Lillingston-Price who enhanced a strong 1980s 2LI group with Johnathan Malins-Smith, Nick Wooldridge, Mark Payne, Richard Montagu and Lunch Chairman Chris Topham. Hope was expressed that this younger crowd heralds the long term success of the Lunch.
A search is underway for a Lunch Committee Chairman. The “Term of Of ce” is a one year rotational commitment with the current Vice Chairman becoming the Chair in the following year. Chris Topham, without a Vice Chair, has led the Project since 2016 and another two members are sought to take on this role wef 2018. Volunteers are asked to make themselves known!
The date for the 2018 lunch is Sunday 15th July (TBC)
ALL Light Infantry Club members are asked to note the date. Details will be sent out in the annual Club mailing in January. Table ‘Monitors’ are sought and encouraged to gather friends – it all helps to make the seating plan work. Individuals are sympa- thetically seated to mutual bene t and enjoyment while ‘Late-comers’ will nd the blind date liberating.
Those attending were [93]: Ron Berry, Mike
Bond, Alistair and Katherine Brown, Stephen Caney, Richard and Avril Cousens, Anthony and Judy D’Arcy-Irvine, Jack and Jane Deverell, Mark and Nikki Elcomb, Tim and Helen Evans, Ian and Di Foster, Alistair and Dee Fyfe, Robin and Debbie Garrett, Adrian and Vikki Gilbert, Phillip and Antonia Goddard, Celia Grover, John and Lucy Hemsley, Angela Hogg and John Steeds, Nigel and Jane Jones, Barry and Shirley Lane, Mike and Gillian Latter, David and Jane Lawrence, Brian and Caroline Lees, Chris Lillingston-Price, Richard Le Fleming, Tim and Rosie Lerwill, Jill Makepeace-Warne, Jonathan Malins-Smith & Susie West, Fenella Monk, Richard and Jemma Montagu, Mark and Pam Payne, Robin and Jane Phayre, Anthony Pile, Roger and Polly Preston, Steven and Vivienne Quant, Mike and Victoria Regan, Mike and Fiona Rescorle, Maryse Robertson, Peter and Fiona Sharland, Rob Shepherd, John and Trish Spiers, Rex and Andy Stephenson, Chris and Katherine Topham, Julian and Caroline Tyndale, Richard and Lynette Vaughan, Judy Watts, Gage and Liz Williams, Mike and Joanna Whistler, Hugo and Caroline White, John White & Mrs Pat Hunt, David Wood, Nick and Sarah Wooldridge, David and Sue Wynne-Davies, Jeremy and Hazel York.
The occasion was made possible by the kind permission of the Trustees of The Ri es Wardrobe Museum.
ATDL
The Light Infantry Club Summer Lunch
Obituary
Richard Trafford – d 09.08.2017
1st Bn The Light Infantry 1970-1973
Richard “Dick” Trafford served for 3 years with 1LI in Lemgo and Northern Ireland 1970-73. Born in 1950 and raised in Kenya where his father worked for the Kenyan Government and his mother, Ann, was a Deputy District Commissioner. Dick moved, via the Philippines, to the UK where he attended Swanbourne Prep and then Berkhamsted Schools, a very lively experience for both schools resulting in 2 years at Aiglon College in Switzerland.
Dick only ever wanted to be a soldier so was disappointed in being turned down for having the International Baccalaureate rather than the requisite “A” levels for becoming a British Army Of cer. He therefore enlisted in the RGJ at Winchester before the system changed its mind and allowed him to attend Mons OCS in January 1970. He was duly commissioned into the Light Infantry.
Friends in 1LI will attest to a lively Mess life and, soldiers, of his enduring loyalty to them. NI tours were a relief from the tedium of BAOR exercises.
FRIENDS IN 1LI WILL ATTEST TO A LIVELY MESS LIFE AND, SOLDIERS, OF HIS ENDURING LOYALTY TO THEM
Dick was not suited to peace time routines and so he was thrilled that, upon leaving the LI, he was offered a commission with the Rhodesian African Ri es during the latter part of UDI (1974-1978). His talents were well used; long range bush patrols with multiple contacts, secondment to the Australian Army in Vietnam, over 300 parachute jumps and the development of a wide knowledge of weapons and systems. Trafford’s uency in Shona, Ndebele, Swahili and Afrikaans (8 languages in all including Spanish after a good bottle of Rioja, and Tagalog (Filipino)) meant promotion to Major. He was used by the Rhodesian government in sanction busting weapons negotiations (his French came in useful) before he received a back injury on operations from a land mine and invalided out to Stoke Mandeville.
Dick’s military career was over with the Lancaster House Agreement. His UDI experiences and inter- national contacts, however, meant that Trafford was never going to settle for a conventional career. Project Management, UK Export promotion, Insurance Investigation, Charitable activities, Security and Disaster Relief took him, inter alia, to West Africa, Haiti, Libya, Afghanistan, Kosovo, Iraq and Darfur. He was a fund of wonderful stories, a novelist and, lately, a trustee of PTSD Resolution (http://www.ptsdresolution.org).
Richard is survived by his wife, Jilly (nee Lovegrove), his son, Charlie, who is a Laboratory researcher and his mother, Ann, now aged 93.
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