Page 80 - MERCIAN Eagle 2021

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Sports, Adventure Training & Messes
Mess Committee
Maj HJ Russell-Blackburn
The Officers’ Mess is a home, a workplace and the sacred building in which our Regimental history is kept and remembered. We must never forget the importance of such an institution and always remember
to enjoy the limited time that we have surrounded by the memories of our forebearers.
I took over as the PMC in the early Summer months from Major Smyth, his tenure had been dominated by life in Cyprus, a Unit Move and the deployment to Kenya, we thank him for his time in the post and look forward to inviting him back to the Mess in the not-too-distant future.
For a long time, Mess life and the inner workings of being an Officer in the British Army was an alien affair compared to what we have previously known. Some of our Subalterns had unfortunately not experienced even a
the garden as we were still emerging from the lockdown restrictions. The wine was provided by the Whalley Wine Shop and we were treated to a fantastic selection of wines and fizz, which was all kicked off with white port and tonic – I can recommend! For all our events so far, we have had
together it needed to be something to remember. It was all of that and I can only thank Capts Breen and Sidwell for their tremendous efforts in executing what was one of the best balls that I have attended.
Once the final elements of the Ball were dismantled our attention turned to what most would class as a regular drumbeat
of activity: Warrant Officers and Sergeants for a BBQ and a curry night. More formally we have held two Regimental dinner
nights where we dined in our subalterns that had not previously been afforded the opportunity. We also hosted our Brigade Commander along with the Commanding Officers from 1 LANCS and 4 YORKS. A Regimental history morning was held where members described and explained our property and silver, some with very personal memories of fallen brother Officers. Our routine now feels normal, the week after this article is written we will again have events that will welcome the festive season such as the boxing, a partners dinner night and the Officers to Warrant Officers and Sergeants Mess.
2022 promises to be an even busier year for the Mess, Kenya will throw up some opportunity for something interesting and then it is anticipated that it will be all hands to the pump for our close of the Battalion which will include several Mess events and what we hope will be a joint Mess summer party.
commissioning parade or ball. So, when we began the resuscitation of the Mess, bringing
The focus for much of the Summer was our Ball, an event that the Mess had gone without for two years
cheese from the Courtyard Dairy, simply lovely!
The focus for much of the Summer was
our Ball, an event that the Mess had gone without for two years. We decided to ensure that it was a large-scale event with little expense
it out of the COVID restrictions we felt it important to have a
busy forecast to allow
people to enjoy, show
off and learn about
Mess life as early as possible.
spared, our logic was that we were meant to be shortly deploying, a large percentage of the Mess had never had any guests to a Military event and to truly let off steam
Our forecast began to grow from June. The first event that we were able to host was a cheese and wine tasting evening in
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