Page 215 - Bugle Autumn 2014

The Rifles London Office
The Crossrail diggers below our offices have completed their main tunnelling and are now working on merging the new and old Bond Street tube station which has resulted in partial closures of the Central and Jubilee lines which in turn has slightly reduced the “foot-fall and drop-in” visitors to 52-56 Davies Street from the veteran’s community.
We are advised that the over-station development will be completed by early 2017 which to us will mean free vehicular traffic past our front door, the return of police, fire and ambulance sirens and blocked daylight from the completed 8 stories station building opposite. Hopefully someone will
come and repair the subsidence cracks both
inside and outside the building which the
tunnelling activity below has created.
Week is always very busy with our forming and antecedent remembrance requirements for wreath laying at a multitude of memorials in London and the increasing Rifles commitments
to the Field of Remembrance outside Westminster Abbey, the Cenotaph Parade on Whitehall (for which the Rifles now have their own marching contingent and which was well supported
in Nov 2013), the main Westminster Abbey service and the individual wreath laying at the graves and memorials of our own fallen Rifles riflemen in Greater London and Home Counties. The anniversary of the death of Sir John Moore in St Paul’s Cathedral
The reduction of the Regular Army has
created a discernible increase in service
leavers wishing to settle in London and
seeking assistance with resettlement in its
broadest terms but in the main with housing
and schooling. Some boroughs are quite
excellent with their support of ex-servicemen under the “Military Covenant” whilst others still not read the script!
On the benevolence/welfare front it is worrying to note what debts people run up and are then unable to maintain a roof over their head – in the main this is because credit card and pay-day loan companies seem to entice people into unlimited credit/debt. The implications of non-payment and the crippling default fees are only realised when it is too late. As a result the debt advisory services of the Service Charities are inundated with requests for help.
In 2013/14 we did not have to organise any Rifles Freedom or Home Coming parades in the London area but Remembrance
The reduction of the Regular Army has created a discernible increase in service leavers wishing to settle in London
as part of Evensong, on 16th January each year, is now a permanent and always memorable fixture in the Rifles calendar.
In November 2013 Davies Street was again the venue for the bi-annual Rifles “Awards Dinner” to which we sat down 200 guests from the “5 Pillars of the Regiment” in the presence of the Colonel-in-Chief and the Royal Colonels of 3, 6 and 7 Rifles.
Over the year this office’s organisational skills were called upon for various Rifles London Club and
antecedent regimental events. As this magazine goes to press we are in the process of organising the 2014 Rifles Officers’ Club Sounding Retreat and Dinner in Guildhall, in the City, which will be a first as to date we have held these dinners at The Royal Hospital, Chelsea.
As the outer office of the Royal Green Jackets Regtl Assn
we continue to act as a sort of drop-in centre for former Green Jackets and KRRC who we are always delighted to see. Of note is how supportive and proud they are of “their new” Regiment and their willingness to support us in our Rifleman like endeavours. J-D v M
THE RIFLES
REGIMENTAL ASSOCIATION NEWS 213