Page 169 - RAPTC Mind, Body & Spirit

167
After Hong Kong and Bulford came a third posting to Singapore when, as command MAA he was the final School Commandant, and the FARELF School of P & RT closed with a final display.
A last posting to Rhine Area Düsseldorf, 1973, brought that link with education again. Big decisions had to be made as we were invited to help set up an American International School is Lisbon, Portugal. It was an investment and financial partnership.
Later, we purchased a large house in Estoril and established our own British International School. By this time Mike had a business office in Lisbon, and one day when entertaining a client to lunch, Ray Mitchell walked in with the England Judo team, on their way from the Olympics, where he had been a referee.
Many years passed and we decided to retire to the Algarve. We rode our horses every day, and Mike was persuaded to make advertisements for Portuguese television. However, Cornwall beckoned, and a new challenge. At sixty seven years he became a glider pilot for the next thirteen years and secretary of the RNAS Culdrose Gliding Club.
His whole life had been connected with being airborne. It started with school gymnastics, leading to Fox Gym and the RAPTC.
He was always the last one to end the performance by leaping through the paper hoop held high at the Royal Tournaments and the Remembrance services in the Albert Hall.
Mike gained his parachute wings and Ron Reilly persuaded him to join the free fall club at the beginning. Again, a pioneer, but whether it was snow or water skiing, jumping, leaping or flying, his love of heights as he soared and swung, were in constraint to his earth bound judo skills.
He always responded to a challenge. As he reflected on his life of eighty eight years and what RAPTC had nurtured and moulded, he would always recall an exciting life in the many stories he has written.
That was his “Then” Today it is your “Now”
An enduring elite Royal Army Physical Training Corps Guard it well!
In memory of Mike Sheedy 1929 – 2017
FEATURES
GENERAL SIR JEREMY MACKENZIE – KNIGHTS GRAND CROSS OF THE ORDER OF THE BATH (GCB) COAT OF ARMS AND BANNER
The Most Honourable Order of the Bath (formerly the Most Honourable Military Order of the Bath) is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate medieval ceremony for appointing a knight, which involved bathing (as a symbol of purification) as one of its elements. The knights so created were known as “Knights of the Bath”. George I “erected the Knights of the Bath into a regular Military Order”.
The Order consists of the Sovereign (currently Queen Elizabeth II), the Great Master (currently The Prince of Wales), and three Classes of members:
• Knight Grand Cross (GCB) or Dame Grand Cross (GCB)
•Knight Commander (KCB) or Dame Commander (DCB)
• Companion (CB)
Members belong to either the Civil or the Military Division. Prior to 1815, the order had only a single class, Knight Companion (KB), which no longer exists. Recipients of the Order are now usually senior military officers or senior civil servants. Commonwealth citizens who are not subjects of the Queen and foreign nationals may be made Honorary Members.
There are 30 Stalls within the Henry Vll Chapel in Westminster Abbey for Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (GCB). (The most senior order below the Garter) The order started with 30 Knights only and each had a Stall however, in the 19th Century the order was enlarged by the Monarch, and now there are double the number of GCBs to available Stalls. This means there is a dead
man’s shoes waiting period, until someone gets their own stall.
General Sir Jeremy Mackenzie (Colonel Commandant RAPTC 1995 – 2011) was awarded the GCB in 1999 and waited 19 years before a stall became vacant and on 24 May 2018 he attended the Installation Ceremony into the Henry VII Chapel in Westminster Abbey. The ceremony is run by the Queen who is the head of the Order every 8 years and HRH Prince of Wales every 4th year. This year the ceremony was run by the Prince of Wales.
The stall displays General Sir Jeremy’s banner above the seat with all the crests of those who have occupied the same seat for hundreds of years. Sir Jeremy’s banner shows the Gold lion of Scotland in the centre as the Garter King of Arms who arranges all Coats of Arms discovered he has a direct link to the ancient Kings of Scotland; hence the Lion of Scotland. The stags are on all Mackenzie crests and were awarded to an early ancestor who saved the life of the then King of Scotland from a wounded stag, while out hunting.
Then there is the Coat of Arms on an enamel plate at the back of the seat, which has the full detail, including the ‘supporters’ one each side. Uniquely General Sir Jeremy has chosen
a Highlander and a RAPTC Instructor (certainly the first time either have been placed in Westminster Abbey and they will remain there in perpetuity) The RAPTCI has his foot on cannon balls because General Sir Jeremy is a gunmaker Liveryman. The Motto means ‘To Shine but not Burn’.