Page 128 - MERCIAN Eagle 2015

WALSALL BRANCH Reg Smith
At the end of October, nine of us ventured to the far north to attend
the East Cheshire Reunion. We really enjoyed ourselves, meeting old friends and all of us commented on the improvement of the hotpot, and the even better cheese board. The evening was made even more special because of the belated presentation of the Major General Peter Martin award to our hard-working secretary Derek (Joe).
On Remembrance Sunday, we attended the parade at Walsall Cenotaph which had a phenomenal turnout. 1,000 on parade and 1,000s lining the streets and square. Our president Major (Retd) Mike Tarbuck, as is the norm, led the parade, with the Standard on parade too.
Our Christmas dinner dance took place at Rushall Labour Club and was enjoyed by 70 members, wives and friends. Our first outing of the New Year took place at the end of January when we went to the Imperial War Museum North at Salford Quays.
The big event was of course the annual Malaya and Singapore Reunion, which was well attended by veterans of a certain age from all over the CRA.
SOUTHERN REGION George Szwejkowski
The East Cheshire Reunion is held a long way from the usual haunts of Southern Region, but we were represented and took the opportunity to finally catch up with Bob Nottage in order to present him with his Southern Region President’s Award; Major Ron Goodwin MBE doing the honours on behalf of our President.
Early November is a busy time for us, and members were
once again privileged to attend the opening of The Field of Remembrance at Westminster Abbey, before enjoying another excellent visit to the Tower of London two days later. We are grateful to Dickie Dover, who for the last time gave us interesting and macabre stories from the Tower. On Remembrance Sunday, we once again paraded on Whitehall and marched past the Cenotaph. We are grateful to everyone who supported us that day, but particularly 98-year-old Thomas Jones, accompanied by his daughter Karen. We enjoyed an excellent lunch in the Chandos Public House afterwards, and we took the opportunity of thanking the pub manager who has always kindly allowed us to take over part of the pub.
Our Annual General Meeting was held in January, and surprise, surprise, all the usual suspects once again agreed to serve on the committee for another year.
We held our Meeanee Ladies Dinner slightly later than usual, and for the first time we held it at Browns of Covent Garden.
It was a memorable evening, with Brigadier Tony Twiss giving the “State of the Nation” address, edited down to less than ten minutes! We also witnessed Dave Taylor singing and a number of anecdotes from Brian D’Arcy RVM, who celebrated his forthcoming 80th birthday with a surprise cake. The raffle was a
great success, and
we have to thank
Lynne Taylor and
Lynne Szwejkowski
for all their efforts.
We must also
thank Pete Hughes
for his generosity
all evening, but
perhaps most of all for out-bidding everyone (especially me) for the bottle of “Ever Glorious” beer.
For those able to attend Chester Race Day, it was a day of mixed fortunes. It was wonderful to have such a well organised regimental enclosure, but once again the weather intervened, ensuring that maximum use was made of the marquees. Nevertheless, it was a pleasure to meet up again with so many others, both on the racecourse and at the regimental club.
Some of us made it to Twickenham the following day, where once again the Royal Navy was sunk without trace by a rampant Army at the annual rugby match.
Les Stelfox celebrated his 102nd birthday during May, and he was very touched to receive so many cards and wishes from members of the 22nd family.
In June, we enjoyed the annual inter services T20 cricket competition at Lords. With thanks once again to our president, Tony Twiss, we enjoyed the best seats in the house in the members’ pavilion. It was a great day out with the added bonus of another Army win.
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CHESTER BRANCH John Fairbanks
Following a long period of poor attendances, combined with the recent tragic loss of so many loyal members, change is very much in the air. We have lately enrolled four new members and warmly welcome Messrs Joe Murphy, Malcolm Lipton, Les Heaps and Darren Bates to the ranks of our merry band of ex-licentious soldiery! May their association with us be long and happy. We are also pleased to welcome Tom Senior back into the fold.
The year ended with the usual sequence of events. A tasty Christmas lunch attended by 40 happy eaters, followed by a non- politically correct Bingo session for the addicts, and an interesting – and for one person, who shall be nameless – a very lucrative session of poker dice for non- Bingo players. Two weeks later, a well- attended Christmas draw took place. It was an enjoyable evening, made memorable
by watching John Murphy once again win an enormous number of prizes. Such was his haul, it was suggested that next year we should simply give him all the prizes
and thus save time and stress. The draw was the last function of the year, and also was the first event attended by Alan Jones (known to all as Iggy) in his new found status as ex steward.
Alan gave us a brilliant service, often well beyond the call of duty, and never let us down and will be sorely missed. As will the cheerful, dedicated, reliable, willing, greatly
appreciated and extremely successful efforts of Linda to feed the ravenous members on a Friday evening. A heart-felt thanks to both of them from all at Chester.
The Regimental Club is now in the hands of Mick Smith, to whom we offer a warm welcome and the assurance that we will do all we can to assist him with his plans for the future. We wish him and Heather good luck and much success in the future. They will need support from all members of the CRA who should never miss a chance to call in for a pint, or a cup of tea, on Friday evenings and Sunday lunchtimes.
The thought of a nice warm, sunshine filled summer convinced the committee it was time to organise a visit to the National Memorial Arboretum, just to keep the members on their toes. To this end a coach was hired, and the event was published online, e-mail, and snail mail. A few days before the trip was due to depart the passenger list was filling nicely, and we
had invited our friends from Birkenhead Branch to join us and we had high hopes of a good turnout. On June 13, the day
of departure, readers with long memories will recall the heavens opened, and stayed open all day. But despite the almost biblical deluge, the eighteen persons who turned out (thirty had promised to travel) enjoyed a truly memorable day. Sadly, we chalked up a considerable loss to branch funds on the day, due mainly to those who promised to attend, and did not do so.
THE MERCIAN EAGLE