Page 48 - QARANC Vol 14 No 8 2014

46 QARANC THE GAZETTE
Aldershot Branch
Chairman – Lt Col Tessa Grieves RRC
Secretary - Lt Col (Retd) Tena MacMachan ARRC
After a very pleasant spring and summer the Aldershot branch enjoyed the latter part of 2013 with a very successful afternoon tea in October, which I’m really pleased to say was supported by both retired and serving members. The afternoon commenced with a fun QARANC Quiz to test our grey matter and we would like to say a big thank-you to Keiron and Alison Spires, who despite the unfortunate IT glitch were still able to deliver the Quiz in good humour and significantly enhance our QARANC knowledge! Following the quiz we watched a fascinating video clip of Dame Margot Turner when she appeared on an episode of ‘This is Your Life’ with Eamonn Andrews, which was truly inspiring and I would like to thank-you Valerie Abraham very much for lending us her copy and it was a excellent opportunity for the junior Officers and Soldiers too appreciate not only what an inspirational lady Dame Margot Turner was but also the horrific events she endured as a POW. We finished off a great year for the branch with our annual Christmas lunch held at the Army
Gold Club and again really pleased to see a good attendance from both retired and serving members. The staff looked after us extremely well and provided an excellent lunch and thank- you to the committee members for organising a fantastic raffle and raising money to boost our funds!
I am looking forward to the year ahead and the committee have lots planned throughout the year and I would like to take this opportunity to make a heartfelt plea to all branch members and serving QARANC from MDHU FP and surrounding units to continue to support the branch events so that we can foster mutual friendships and maintain the ‘esprit de corps’. This year we have planned dates on both weekdays and weekends to hopefully cater for both those that work during the week and for the retired members. Our first event will be the annual AGM on Saturday 8 March 2014 to be held at the Army Golf Club. This year we have chosen a weekend to encourage attendance and to make it more of a social event following the AGM with a sit down lunch, which will be provided for free!!!
I look forward to seeing you throughout the year!
Lt Col Grieves RRC Chairman
Chester Branch
Chairman Col (Rtd) Sylvia Quayle Secretary Mrs Lynn Orfanelli
2013 was all about our 3rd reunion that proved to be another enormous success. We met up on the Friday 6th September at the Liner Hotel Liverpool.
Our aim was to ensure we all had an enjoyable weekend, relaxing with friends, both old and new and creating memories to take away with us. And we certainly did that!
On the Friday we met up in the lounge, swapped a few photographs and talked and talked. We all knew someone who knew someone. While some went on into the city for
dinner the rest stayed in the hotel and in true form we carried on celebrating. As one member of the staff said to me ‘we thought we were in for a quite night’! I smiled at them. Little did they know I thought.
Saturday morning after breakfast we all boarded the coach for the fab four tour and had a super trip down memory lane. It was great fun, which was helped all the more by the Guide and the coach driver, who between them were a brilliant double act!! As for the singing well I can only say Gareth Malone you have missed a trick!
After the tour some went on a trip on the Mersey River, others ventured shopping down at the Albert Dock. The