Page 101 - QDG Year of 2022 CREST

1st The Queen’s Dragoon Guards 99
London and Home Counties Branch
The slow tactical withdrawal from COVID, coupled with all the other chaos going on worldwide made 2022 a diffi- cult year for the Branch to get together. However, as always, the Branch was out on the ground flying the QDG flag within its large geographical area.
Branch Members individually or in small groups attended the following events in 2022; Her Majesty’s State Funeral, Cav Mem, D-Day Commem- orations 5/6th June in Normandy, Violette Szabo GC-SOE remembrance garden party at Builth Wells in June, British Torch of Remembrance service in Westminster Abbey, Remem- brance Day all over our area and sadly our most important role honouring members of the Regimental family on their final parade.
We look forward to getting together in 2023 properly and already we have 2 dates to put in our Calendars please: Cav Mem 14th May 2023 and a huge
push for the 15th October 2023 at the Royal Hospital Chelsea for a Church Service and lunch.
The Branch Secretary kindly asks any members of the Regimental family
who live or who have moved into the area recently, to just drop him an email to check their details or add them to the existing list.
ADB
Andy and the Brigade Commander, Frisbee finalists
The Duke of York’s Royal Military School
This short article is about a School where over the years, a number of the Regimental Families children have and continue to proudly wear the QDG cap badge.
The Duke of York’s Royal Military School was formed over 200 years ago by the then Duke of York for orphaned children of Soldiers from the rank and file killed in the Battle of Waterloo. Originally it was sited alongside the Royal Hospital Chelsea in London, but in 1905 it moved to its current site behind Dover Castle in Kent.
For many years it was the school for boys from military families when the postings were accompanied worldwide, giving them a stable education. Today it is a very diverse co-educational State Academy boarding School, including sixth form with a military ethos and not a boot camp for naughty kids as some locals think!
In recent years there has been a large contingent of QDG heritage students attending, in fact the day Joanna was showed around School it was like a Regimental reunion for Lynn and me, which was very reassuring.
It is a very difficult decision to send your child to boarding School. However, the Duke’s delivers an excellent curriculum with small class sizes, superb sports facilities & weekly team match fixtures, adventure training/DoE/skiing/expeditions, clubs galore, CCF, high grade accommodation with caring staff and of course a second to none military ethos with traditional values set for today that will assist them in the modern world.
The highlight of the school year is it’s ‘Grand Day’ a Trooping the Colour (the only School to have one) parade completely run by the students. If you visit the school website, you can watch the parade it is absolutely fantastic and in a time where the ‘youth’ receive a lot of bad press it is truly inspiring.
To finish, as you can see the students wear their parents Regi- mental Badge on the right side of their uniform, it is called their Heart Badge and I can assure you it does bring a tear to your eye when you see them proudly wearing it.
ADB
The next generation, Miss Bowtell and Master Tyson