Page 127 - The Royal Lancers Chapka 2018

REGIMENTAL JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL LANCERS (QUEEN ELIZABETHS’ OWN) 125
Visit of the Brooke Charity
launched a special exhibition to commemorate 50 years of the start of the civil rights campaign in Northern Ireland which led on to the ‘Troubles’ and the military involvement. This proved to be most popular with our visitors.
As we moved into autumn the main focus was on the 100th an- niversary of the armistice and the national commemorations. I was contacted by Calendar regional television who wanted to do a story on Private George Ellison, 5L who was the last British soldier killed at around 0930on 11th November 1918. This was screened in the week leading up to Remembrance Sunday. In the same week the museum hosted over 430 school children as well as providing outreach for some 800 people who attended the Remembrance Service in the courtyard.
At a board meeting of The Queen’s Royal Lancers Museum Trust (QRLMT) held on the 15th November the trustees agreed to dis- solve the trust and that all the collection and property should be vested to The Royal Lancers Museum Trust (RLMT). This trust will then take on the responsibilities for our museum. It is hoped that this action will be completed by the end of January 2019. Visits in December included the Brooke Charity, which works for improving the lives of working horses, donkeys and mules
Captain Mick Holtby with the grandson of Private S Godley VC on the 100th anniversary of the award at Mons battlefield tour
across the world. The charity was set up in 1934 in Cairo by Dorothy Brooke, the wife of Major General GFH Brooke 16/5L. The final visit of the year was by 20 members of the Elizabe- than Academy CCF, who are all badged The Royal Lancers from Retford.
With commemorations for World War 1 now at an end we turn our attention to 75th anniversaries of D Day and Casino and will be updating our displays accordingly. If you are in the area do call in and visit your museum, we are free to enter. For further information do visit our website at www.qrlnymuseum.co.uk or follow us on Facebook.
RLOCA and Branches
Royal Lancers (Queen Elizabeths’ Own) Old Comrades’ Association (RLOCA)
2018 was the most significant year of remembrance in the his- tory of our nation; to have been a part of the Centenary Pa- rade of Remembrance of World War 1’s Armistice will be a day that all our parading Veteran Lancers (VL) will remember for the rest of their lives. Led by Colonel of the Regiment (CoR), Brigadier Andrew Hughes, CBE, the parade marched past the Cenotaph Memorial honouring the fallen; many of us will have had in mind the great battles of 1914-18. Simultaneously, at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire and in Belgium other members of the RLOCA were parading and commemorat- ing the Great War’s end, in particular, in Belgium, the death of Private George Ellison, 5L, who is recognised as being the last British soldier to have been killed in the Great War.
The RLOCA is beginning to find its feet in the new mode of operation and cadence of annual events. I am extremely grateful to the RLOCA leadership, in particular, our secretary, Captain Richard Dzieroqynski, for his and all the Veteran Lancer lead- ers’ hard work in delivering the Veteran Lancer effects of: ‘Be- nevolence’, ‘Remembrance’ and ‘Networking’, while supporting the RL HHQ and the work of the serving regiment.
This year the Ministry of Defence has produced a Veteran’s Strat- egy to which the RLOCA look forward to aligning itself, through the direction already provided by the Colonel of the Regiment. Once more, we have been financially enabled by The Royal Lanc- er’s Charitable Trust (RLCT) to which the RLOCA is extremely grateful; it is clear that the Trustees have recognised the work be-
JMH