Page 44 - QDG 2023

42 1st The Queen’s Dragoon Guards
Officers’ Mess
As ever, much of the Officers’ Mess found itself dislocated throughout 2023, with the first quarter of the year seeing C Sqn in Texas, B Sqn in Kuwait and RHQ in Canada. The highlight of the start of the year was the now annual Officers’ Mess Shoot which was very generously held at Hoe Hall by Mr and Mrs Keith. Veterans of the sport and newbies alike enjoyed the day, with Captain Allington taking particular delight in blowing the head clean off one unsuspecting pheasant, a technique colloquially known as ‘pillow casing.’ Many of the birds that day seemed to be particularly lucky, leading many Mess members to wonder if they had been supplied with blank cartridges... The total bag was a respectable 72.
Capts E Cooper, T Wills, R Fulloway, S Upward and Lt H Swailes were lucky enough to ‘deploy’ to the Falkland Islands for a working weekend to visit Capt ZMAYH Al-Khamiri, who had very gamely put on a Waterloo Dinner Night in HQ BFSAI. We were lucky enough to
Three blondes don’t make a right
deliver the Waterloo Speeches with equal parts pride, passion, and panache. It went down well, especially in the tri-ser- vice setting where the other two services seem to occasionally lack in those 3Ps. The team was also lucky enough to see all 5 species of Penguin in the Falkland Islands (strangely always beating us in rock, paper, scissors – devious little things) and to be taken on a tour of the
RAF’s Quick Reaction Alert (although we were quick to remind them that of course the real top guns were the Voyager pilots - those guys do some serious flying).
The next social event of the year was Cavalry Memorial Weekend in May, which saw an excellent turnout of Officers. After the dinner on the Friday night, much of the mess descended into Embargo’s and were met by a handful of other halves, who were told that ‘a bunch of handsome men in black tie have just turned up girls, it’s your lucky night’ (or so the story goes). The Sunday Cavalry Memorial, a sombre and moving event, was followed by lunch in Boisdale’s as is traditional for everyone up to and including the Adjutant.
In the Spring we received Arthur Purbrick RL (who? Never heard of them) as C Sqn Ldr, then B Sqn Ldr. The Officers’ Mess Summer Ball, based on the theme of ‘A Day at the Races’ was quite the occasion, with the variety of outfits being quite astonishing. The event started with guests and mess members racing wheeled, unpowered vehicles around the island outside the mess,
Dickie plays rugby?