Page 104 - The Royal Lancers Chapka 2017
P. 104

102 REGIMENTAL JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL LANCERS (QUEEN ELIZABETHS’ OWN)
 The Royal Lancer Old Comrades Association Gathering at the National Memorial Arboretum
The Royal Lancer Old Comrades Association (RLOCA) made their annual gathering at the National Memorial Arboretum on the Tuesday before Remembrance Sunday, again this year was a good turn-out, and Colonel Wills OBE represented the colonel of the regiment and laid a wreath on his behalf.
We were reliably informed that the 9/12L and QRL memorials should be moved by next year and they should stand closer to- gether. Purely out of chance a while waiting in the café, the daughter of ‘Doctor Bob’ for those who will remember him from the Medical Centre in the 1980s and 90s introduced herself to the OCA, when she recognised the tie, hopefully, Bob might turn up next year. Afterwards we retired to The Royal British Legion at Alrewas, who put on a buffet for us.
Mr Tony Wilson was selling his wares, and made a very generous contribution to the regimental trust.
Colonel Nick Wills OBE
The Gathering
   This is no time for levity!
 Regimental Association Welfare Support to Ex-Lancers
Since last year the Regimental Association has given £28,253 in welfare payments and in total generated over £67.5k in financial support to ex-Lancers. The association helped 90 in-
dividuals who were all past members of the antecedent regi- ments of Lancers or their families. Of these 93 cases, 64 were new applicants and for the most part all requests for support were met, with the exceptions of funeral costs, care homes and social debt.
All cases which were declined were then forwarded to the or- ganisations who were best place to assist them. In addition to the money provided by the Regimental Association a further £29,200 was sourced from agencies such as the Army Benevo- lent Fund (ABF) and The Royal British Legion (TRBL), and Help for Heroes (H4H). The ABF being the single largest provider who contributed £16K. All the cases are referred to Home Headquarers via either SSAFA or the TRBL and where individual come to HHQ direct they are put in contact with SSAFA.
45% of cases were men between the ages of 40 and 65. The assistance covered a large and varied range of request, from prison releases, widows and wives (10) and serving soldiers and their families (4). Ex-Lancers were supported in: Philip- pines, Spain, Cyprus, Zimbabwe and New Zealand. The area of single greatest need this year was housing: rent, mainte- nance, and furnishings and contents. The money that under- pins the welfare payments that are distributed by HHQ comes from the ‘days giving scheme’ which is the voluntary payment made by serving officers and soldiers of the regiment. This money is used exclusively for the relief of suffering of past members of the regiment and their families. This is the tan- gible link from the serving regiment to support ex-members and binds us together as a family. The figures quoted do not include any emergency payments made by branches to their members. The Royal Lancers Charitable Trust accounts are available on the Charity Commission website.
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