Page 28 - Mercian Eagle 2014

The Traditions and Ceremonial Activities of the 1st Battalion Since September 2013
With the Eagle Memorial proudly looking out from Battalion Headquarters, 1 MERCIAN has arrived in Bulford in style. There is much to do. The men and women of this fresh battalion are using all of their experience, hard won over the past 7 years, to build a unit that is operationally sound but also one that retains the flavour of the Regiments that preceded us. Since forming up on the 25 August 2014 the 1st Battalion has celebrated:
• The Battle of Mons with a parade and ceremony in Belgium at the
site of the Battle.
• The Battle of Alma with Pte Keenan receiving and parading the
Queen’s Colour. The Battalion Trooped the Colour in front of our families and Commander Land Forces, Lieutenant General JR Everard CBE.
• The Battle of Gheluvelt with a parade and a ceremony at Gehluvelt Park in Worcester.
• The unveiling of a statue to honour Pte Thomas Alfred Jones VC at a ceremony in Runcorn.
Earlier in the training year the 1st Battalion had:
• Exercised the Freedom of the City of Chester to commemorate the Battle of Mons.
• Received the Freedom of the Town of Sandbach.
We look forward to:
• Commemorating the Battle of Ferozeshah with the Warrant Officers’ and Sergeants Mess receiving the Colours at a parade followed by a dinner.
• Commemorating the Battle of Badajoz with a scarlet jacket being raised in place of the Battalion Flag.
• Celebrating Battalion Christmas Day by treating the junior ranks to Gunfire. Officers, warrant officers and senior non-commissioned officers will serve the soldiers’ their lunch. Then the officers will attempt to obtain the Key to the Khyber Pass.
• We will celebrate the Battle of Meeannee by partaking in an inter- mess football match. Last year it was convincingly won by the Corporal’s Mess with the Privates’ team coming second.
• We continue to practice the tradition of challenging for the Tappers Cup but as it is passed around the mess, each member rises and toasts a regimental recipient of the Victoria Cross.
We continue to compete for a number of prestigious cups and are
looking at ways of merging these with the silver we receive-in from across the Regiment.
• At Sephton Trophy Rugby League Memorial Match the Coleridge
Cup is battled out between the 1st Battalions of the Mercian and
Duke of Lancaster’s Regiments.
• The Pearson Trophy is contested by the entire Battalion with a
hideous cross country run over and around the Kiwi Hill.
• The Patterson Trophy will be competed for in the New Year by the
very best Private Soldiers being tested over a gruelling 22 mile
march.
• The Earl of Chester’s Trophy will be awarded to the best company
over a year’s worth of events.
We are very much the custodians of all that made our antecedent regiments great. We are also building on the old traditions, recalling those battles in the far past, but also remembering our most recent history. We are rightly proud of all those who have been awarded gallantry medals since the Regiment formed in 2007 and we look
to honour them with a wall of citations in the Junior Ranks Mess. We also recall with sadness those who have been injured and those who are no longer with us. In the Officers’ Mess places are set for each of our Mercian brothers who died on operations. In these small but significant ways we are retaining the very best of what went before while forging new ceremonies that honour our more recent successes.
The Colour Party ‘marches on’ during the Freedom of Sandbach
26 THE MERCIAN EAGLE