Page 229 - Rifles 2017 Issue No 3

Members of the Of cers’ Club at the London Dinner
Relaxing after the Weymouth Veterans Parade
Reg Cossins after receiving his Legion d’Honneur
worldwide publicity.
The Weymouth Veterans Parade is a major annual
event and members of the Association from all over the South West are among the thousands who attend as participants or spectators. Ken Chivers, Lofty Janes and Kev Latham have acted as parade marshals for a number of years and have a huge task keeping such large numbers in order. The parade provided another opportunity for memorial fund raising as can be seen above in the accompa- nying photograph of Association members relaxing after the parade.
In August Reg Cossins, 95, received his Legion d’Honneur medal in Poole. Landing in Normandy just two weeks after D-Day, he fought as a signaller with the Dorsets through France, Belgium, Holland and Germany, nishing the War in Berlin. Mercifully, he escaped unscathed, but his conduct did not go unrewarded as he was presented with a Commen- dation by Field Marshal Montgomery in person.
The Devon and Dorset Of cers’ Club conducts a number of functions throughout the year, with the highlight being the London Dinner which last year was held in the Victory Services Club for the rst time. This new location proved propitious as 60 members attended - rather more than would have tted into the usual venue in Davies Street - and this was a post-Ri es record, partly due to the decision by members of 1st Battalion who served in Iraq on Op Telic 8 in 2006 to use the dinner as a venue for their 10th anniversary reunion. During the preceding AGM it was agreed unanimously that Colonel Toffer Beattie would take over as Chairman from Bryan Dutton.
So, another busy year has passed, but there is much to look forward to with the dedication of the new regimental memorial and the celebration of the centenary of the battle of Bois des Buttes in France at which The Devons were awarded the Croix de Guerre, in May.
SO, ANOTHER BUSY YEAR HAS PASSED, BUT THERE
IS MUCH
TO LOOK FORWARD TO
THE RIFLES
REGIMENTAL ASSOCIATIONS 227