Page 78 - RSDG Year of 2022 CREST

82 EAGLE AND CARBINE
comradeship, remembrance, and endless banter. In 2022 we started the festivities on the Saturday evening, with a wonderful curry night at the Chelsea Pensioners’ Club with around 60 serving officers and SNCOs, along with members of the Association. On the Sunday morning at the parade and service in Hyde Park, the turnout was impressive with over one hundred attending. In 2023, the event, to be held on 14 May, will be especially important as we are the ‘lead’ regiment: HRH The Duke of Kent is slated to take the salute, so make sure that you book your place. It is bound to be a wonderful day.
The London and South East Branch Chairman giving In-Pensioner Mick Skerrett his Christmas Gift
One of the most memorable events in 2022 for me was actually the simplest – the giving of the Christmas Grant to our in-pensioner Mick Skerratt. As many of you will know, Mick is a bit of a character, but he is also incredibly knowledgeable about the Hospital in his capacity as a tour guide. I learned a couple of facts about Imperial Eagles... the first is that the original eagles were in fact tin and much lighter and easier to lug around the battlefield than the heavy bronze replica on our Regimental Standard (see the accompanying picture of one with bullet holes and you can see how flimsy they really were). The second is the difference
Attendees at the 2022 Cenotaph Parade
Our other events were more sombre. In July we supported John Rochester for the Memorial Service for his beloved wife, Heidi, at the Royal Hospital Chapel and at other times the funerals of Major Mike Veillard-Thomas and Brigadier Michael Barclay.
More recently I was privileged to meet Her Majesty The Queen Consort at the opening of The Field of Remembrance on 10 November. This is a beautiful, dignified event and we have a prominent position in the Field and is the warm up to the Cenotaph Parade which, this year, was held on 14 November. This was The King’s first parade as Sovereign and as you would expect was conducted with great formality and grace. We had a good turnout but were still a bit short of numbers, so please do try and come in future – the more Grey Berets the better; we make for great TV (just ask Charlie Lambert!).
between the eagles with open mouths (pre-Napoleon’s imprisonment in Elba) and closed mouth like ours from the 45th Regiment, which was cast in the final days before Waterloo when they were trying to save money. It was presented to the 45th Regiment on the 10 June 1815 and Sergeant Charles Ewart captured it 8 days later!
The final event of the year was the Kimberley Parade held at the Carabineers Memorial on Chelsea Embankment, which this year was held on 4 December. We read out the names of those who died in the year, and I am incredibly sad to report that a total of 41 of our SCOTS DG comrades died in 2022. I hope you can raise a toast to them but in any event “we will remember them.”