Page 202 - The Bugle 2018

The Rifles Office Exeter
Devon and Dorset
It’s been a busy year for the Devon and Dorset Regimental Association, with two major events taking place among the normal routine. In September 2017 the efforts of many individuals over a number of years finally came to fruition when the Regimental Memorial was erected and dedicated at the National Memorial Arboretum (NMA).
Shortly after the NMA was established in 2001 the Regiment agreed to have three trees planted in memory of The Devons, The Dorsets and The Devon and Dorsets. Those trees are still there, along with six trees in the Ulster Ash Grove which was estab- lished in 2003. From the early days of the NMA, members of the Association began to visit and in 2012 a working party was set up to consider placing a memorial there. By 2014 the NMA authorities had earmarked a very suitable plot and ten artists were identified and approached to provide designs. After considerable discussion it was unanimously agreed that Mrs Vivien (Vivi) Mallock’s concept was the most suitable. She would produce three life-size figures symbolising a Devon soldier from WW1, a Devon and Dorset in Northern Ireland and a Dorset from Kohima.
TO ‘BRAVE
MEN’ OR IN
AFRIKAANS
‘DIE
DAPPERS’
HRH inspects the Memorial
THE
MEMORIAL
IS DESIGNED
SO THAT THE
SUN SHINES
THROUGH
THE OPEN
CROSS ON
6TH JANUARY
EACH YEAR
AND IS
DEDICATED
the guests were entertained. HRH formally signed the Donor’s Book before leaving and not long after- wards members drifted away, having enjoyed a truly memorable event.
On 6th January 2000 the Devon and Dorsets celebrated the centenary of the Battle of Wagon Hill near Ladysmith in South Africa along with ‘the enemy’ in the form of the Harrismith Commando. At that event a strong bond of comradeship was established and a toast drunk to ‘brave men’ on both sides of the conflict. In June 2017 a new reconciliation memorial commemorating the men who fought was unveiled in a ceremony attended by members of 2 RIFLES (see article elsewhere) and the Chair of Devon and Dorset Regimental Trustees, Maj Gen Bryan Dutton. The memorial is designed so that the sun shines through the open cross on 6th January each year and is dedicated to ‘Brave Men’ or in Afrikaans ‘Die Dappers’.
In 2016 the remains of two soldiers were discovered with regimental artefacts during road works near the town of Albert in Northern France. However, despite intensive research, including DNA testing, it was not possible to name either of them. The artefacts identified them as being members of the Bedfordshire Regiment and the Dorset Regiment. DNA got the Dorset down to one of six names on the Arras Memorial from an original twelve, all of whom had been killed in March 1918 during the battle of Albert. Sadly, though, neither could be definitively named.
The soldiers were buried with full military honours during a moving ceremony on 16th November 2017 in Bouzincourt Ridge Cemetery which is maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and which has views to Thiepval in one direction and Albert in another. Partly conducted by The Revd John Swanston CF from 1 RIFLES, the ceremony was organised by the MOD’s Joint Casualty and Compassionate Centre. A number of French standard bearers as well as the two from Dorset - Ken Chivers and Rob Frazer - were in attendance.
After many years of painstaking preparation, pivotal decisions, detailed staff work, artistic endeavour and comprehensive fundraising, the Regimental Memorial was finally and formally dedicated at 1pm on Sunday 17 September 2017. Guests at the ceremony included HRH The Duke of Kent, who was formerly the Colonel-in-Chief of the Regiment and is still Patron of the Regimental Association and of course Royal Colonel of 1 RIFLES. He was joined by the two county lord-lieu- tenants as well as the mayors and representatives of the councils of the regimental freedom cities and towns. Cadets from the Devon and Dorset Army Cadet Forces lined the route and sounded the bugle calls led by WO1 Tony Cox. A marquee reception followed the service, at which members of the Association were able to meet up and where
208 REGIMENTAL ASSOCIATIONS
THE RIFLES