Post by aghart on Sept 8, 2012 20:22:16 GMT
17 members were present for the September 2012 meeting. The loyal toast and toast to the regiment were given. The minutes of the AGM in July were available and passed. The latest branch members address list was available to all members. The London branch newsletter and the Tank Times were available to view. A vote of thanks was given to the branch secretary for organising the recent trip to the National Memorial Arboretum.
Letters from RHQ RTR regarding the merger of 1&2 RTR and the service in London to celebrate the 70th anniversary of El Alamein were available.
Graham Collins confirmed that he was available to carry the branch standard on remembrance Sunday in Poole Park. The branch president is organising a wreath from RHQ RTR.
It was decided to hold the annual ladies lunch on Sunday 20th January 2013; further details will be announced later.
There being no further business the meeting was closed and a separate short meeting for those attending the Cambrai celebrations in France was held before the guest speaker was introduced.
Members of the Bere Regis scout group gave a presentation on their project “Remember them”, the aim of which is to allow the scouts to connect with remembrance Sunday and understand what it is really all about. The scouts researched the names on the war memorials in the villages of Bere Regis, Winterbourne Kingston and Affpuddle. They discovered who these people really were, what schools they went to, where they lived, what they did prior to going to war. They discovered the real human beings behind the names, like the 15 year old who joined the 5th Dorsets in 1914 only to die at Gallipoli in 1915 still only age 16. Or the 2 brothers who joined the RAF in WW2, one was killed in 1943; the other shot down and killed in April 1945 just before hostilities ended.
They looked at why a number of soldiers from Canada are listed on the memorials? And the reason is that many people migrated to Canada (primarily the prairies) at the turn of the 20th century, only for a number to decide that they had made a mistake but did not have means to get back to the UK. The outbreak of war in 1914 gave them the opportunity they needed. Join the Canadian Army, get sent to the UK, once the war is won ( it will be over by Christmas remember) get de-mobbed on the right side of the Atlantic and go home to Dorset. Sadly they had not bargained for the horrors and casualties of the western front.
The scouts have visited the battlefields of Flanders and seen the memorials, the trenches and the cemeteries. One scout laid a wreath at the grave of a distant relative; his friends then laid a wreath at the next grave along, why? Because it was the grave of an unknown Canadian soldier, and they thought that as one of many unknowns it had probably never had an individual tribute placed on it, so they gave this Unknown Soldier his own personal salute, a very thoughtful act.
We did not really know what to expect from the scouts. We were surprised and pleased at what we saw and heard.
Fear Naught
Letters from RHQ RTR regarding the merger of 1&2 RTR and the service in London to celebrate the 70th anniversary of El Alamein were available.
Graham Collins confirmed that he was available to carry the branch standard on remembrance Sunday in Poole Park. The branch president is organising a wreath from RHQ RTR.
It was decided to hold the annual ladies lunch on Sunday 20th January 2013; further details will be announced later.
There being no further business the meeting was closed and a separate short meeting for those attending the Cambrai celebrations in France was held before the guest speaker was introduced.
Members of the Bere Regis scout group gave a presentation on their project “Remember them”, the aim of which is to allow the scouts to connect with remembrance Sunday and understand what it is really all about. The scouts researched the names on the war memorials in the villages of Bere Regis, Winterbourne Kingston and Affpuddle. They discovered who these people really were, what schools they went to, where they lived, what they did prior to going to war. They discovered the real human beings behind the names, like the 15 year old who joined the 5th Dorsets in 1914 only to die at Gallipoli in 1915 still only age 16. Or the 2 brothers who joined the RAF in WW2, one was killed in 1943; the other shot down and killed in April 1945 just before hostilities ended.
They looked at why a number of soldiers from Canada are listed on the memorials? And the reason is that many people migrated to Canada (primarily the prairies) at the turn of the 20th century, only for a number to decide that they had made a mistake but did not have means to get back to the UK. The outbreak of war in 1914 gave them the opportunity they needed. Join the Canadian Army, get sent to the UK, once the war is won ( it will be over by Christmas remember) get de-mobbed on the right side of the Atlantic and go home to Dorset. Sadly they had not bargained for the horrors and casualties of the western front.
The scouts have visited the battlefields of Flanders and seen the memorials, the trenches and the cemeteries. One scout laid a wreath at the grave of a distant relative; his friends then laid a wreath at the next grave along, why? Because it was the grave of an unknown Canadian soldier, and they thought that as one of many unknowns it had probably never had an individual tribute placed on it, so they gave this Unknown Soldier his own personal salute, a very thoughtful act.
We did not really know what to expect from the scouts. We were surprised and pleased at what we saw and heard.
Fear Naught