Page 16 - Chiron Issue 2 2014

When I assumed the role of Regimental Secretary RAVC in 2011, I was already familiar with the National Memorial Arboretum (NMA) at Alrewas in Staffordshire, having spent the previous five years as Deputy Regt Sec RAMC and Project Officer for the RAMC Grove at the NMA with nearly 1000 trees requiring several visits a year to ensure the Grove was being well maintained and to co-ordinate RAMC events being held there.
So, armed with this knowledge of the site it was now my task to have a RAVC presence alongside the other Corps within the AMS, namely RAMC, QARANC and RADC who already had memorials in place. Following on from meetings with the Curator of the NMA, Mr Paul Kennedy, RAVC Corps RSM WO1 Adie Davies and Secretary of the Melton Mowbray Branch, Mr Roger Whittle a suitable site close to the other AMS Corps was identified.
With the site identified all I had to do was come up with a suitable design for the memorial so together with Major Iain Rose and a blank A4 piece of paper we got to work. As a starter we had the RAVC badge, the AVC badge (this being the Army Veterinary Corps before the Royal Warrant was bestowed by King George V in 1918), an image depicting a horse being tended by a veterinary officer and an image with a military working dog to show the change in focus following WWII and suitable wording... now to bring this altogether in a fitting memorial together with a bench either side for visitors to rest, contemplating and remembering our past heroes...
With our idea to hand I presented it to the RAVC Council chaired by our Colonel Commandant, Lt Gen James Everard CBE and subject to a couple of minor changes and with a sigh of relief the Council gave their approval to the plan.
My next step was to present the plan at
The RAVC Memorial
By Lt Col A DuBaree - Regimental Secretary
the RAVC Association AGM during the next Corps weekend in September 2012, when I would also launch an appeal to raise the funds needed for the RAVC memorial. The AGM unanimously approved the plan and the RAVC Memorial Appeal was launched, whereupon the Commanding Officer of the 1 Military Working Dog Regiment from Germany, Lt Col Andrew Devey, raised his hand and offered the first £2,000 from his unit. Over the next few months the appeal gathered pace and donations continued to arrive from Association members holding quiz nights in their local pubs, the mother of one of our serving soldiers raising £800 from local events, funds from the LCpl Liam Tasker’s annual memorial rugby match at Melton arrived, and the Commanding Officer of the Defence Animal Centre, Lt Col Richard Pope raised money through county shows and lectures whenever his unit was involved and DAVRS raising another £2000 from a well known military tailor in London. On meeting the contractor/stonemason, Mr Keith Rackham, who was well known at the NMA and keen to be involved in the project, my opening gambit being that ‘the RAVC did not have much money’ Keith was very understanding with his offer of doing the inscriptions on the memorial stone free of charge as a token of his own donation towards the Appeal. Things were really looking promising and it appeared that this vision would become a reality in no time.
We then set a timescale of Spring/Summer 2014 to have the RAVC Memorial ready for unveiling. As our Colonel in Chief, HRH Princess Anne was visiting the DAC in October 2013, I took the opportunity to mention the memorial project and that the RAVC Council would like to invite HRH to unveil the memorial.
Meanwhile, the appeal fund was slowing down and we were enduring the wettest
winter in over a century with the area around the plot 12inches under water, which needless to say, added to the pressure. However, Keith, the stonemason knew that it would all be achievable, providing he had a window of two weeks to allow the ground to dry up. This pause also gave Major Iain Rose and me a chance to refine the design, except that we could not find a suitable AVC cap badge for the engravers to use for the memorial. Fortunately, an old friend, Col David Vassallo suggested that I contacted the Army Graphics and design department at Headquarters Land Command in Andover who kindly offered to redraw the AVC badge, based on the old template. The end product was first class.
Luckily, with April came the sun and the ground began to dry out and after a site visit with the stonemason we decided to go ahead with the base for the memorial. The end was in sight... or so I thought.... on my next meeting with the stonemason he explained that he had a problem with the granite for the memorial in that a thin crack had appeared but he had come up with the idea of introducing a three stone memorial standing side by side, with the left one depicting the AVC and WW1 with a Veterinary officer tending to his horse, the middle stone would have the main wording and the right stone showing the RAVC with a dog and handler in a caring role.
On my return to Headquarters at Sandhurst, Camberley, the idea was discussed with DAVRS, Maj Iain Rose and Capt Mark Gibbs who all gave their approval. This was now the third week of April. Concurrently, I had been working on the Royal visit which had been set for Friday 2 May 2014 when our Colonel in chief who had accepted our invitation would unveil the memorial.
It was pressure all round, preparing the brief for the Palace and RAVC Colonel
16 Chiron Calling