Winchester and District Branch Report

WINCHESTER AND DISTRICT BRANCH

Or Are We In Or Are We Out Yet - Part 2

Its early January 2019, a year ago almost to the day I was sat on this same chair facing this same computer screen, the same as I am today and completely at the mercy of ‘writers block’. In the background a variety of political pundits on the radio were endlessly waffling on about the possible outcomes of Brexit. I do remember at the time thinking, and later mentioning in our piece for Swift and Bold that our parliament was as constipated as my ‘writing block’, and if it all went pear shaped and we ended up with Jeremy Corbyn as Prime Minister with Diane Abbott as his Foreign Secretary you would find me flying out to Outer Mongolia where I would live out my remaining years in a mud hut –or a yurt as my wife pedantically informed me. Anyway the good news is that on the morning of the 13th December 2019 I cancelled my flight to Outer Mongolia and no longer have any desire to live in a yurt! My wife is of course delighted. Hurrah! other people’s dining was clearly a success as the remaining months of 2019 was to later prove.

There is no doubt in our collective branch minds we consider ourselves pretty lucky in so many ways to be co-located in what we all consider to be our ancestral regimental home. Not least of course we, unlike all other branches, have a convenient place to hold both our meetings and other events we organise on behalf of the Regiment. I am of course referring to Sir John Moore Barracks, or ATR Winchester as it is generally called in modern military parlance these days. Anyway our user relationship with the ATR is not all one sided by us by any means. No, in fact it's quite the opposite –we, or certainly a number of our members are now so much part of the ATR it’s a wonder they are not on the payroll and adding to their personal

I know I have mentioned it before in previous articles we have submitted, but we in the Winchester Branch do try our hardest to give our members a varied and interesting slant to everything we do. To that end ‘Der Management’ (thank you Hale and Pace) consisting of our President, Vice President, Chairman, Secretary, Treasurer, Activities Member, and anyone else who would like to tag along met up on a freezing evening in early January at a local hostelry to discuss and plan our year. Even after many years of this practice in so many different watering holes around the Winchester area I still wonder what goes through other customer’s minds when Roy’s booming voice reverberates around the room causing diners glasses to gently tinkle in time with his every utterance! Anyway our evening of planning and disruption to

pensions! I am of course referring to Messrs John Harper, Derek Randell John ‘Geordie’ Scott, and lastly Pat and May Low who between them all accrue a considerable amount of unacknowledged goodwill on behalf of the regiment. How? Well

between the 3 fella’s almost working full time painting and maintaining the armoured vehicles and other memorials around the site and ensuring the plant holders around the chapel are always in seasonal bloom, and with Pat and May Low (now in their early 80’s) constantly out in all weathers keeping our Light Division Memorial Garden in tip top condition.

The place would undoubtedly be less smart and welcoming to all who visit the ATR. However I am pleased to say their loyalty, care and dedication to the overall site is not lost on the landlords of the ATR as all are held in great regard by every member of staff. Anyway back to the task in hand of bringing you the reader up to-date with what the Winchester branch has been up to over the past year. As always it really got underway with our branch AGM in February where Major Roy ‘Kinda Stuff’ Stanger was once again re-elected as our Branch Chairman together with Peter Andrews as Treasurer. In truth - to say Peter was re-elected is a bit of a misnomer because he had on that evening just taken over from Brian Scott who had held the treasury fort for the past 3 years whilst Peter who had previously held the post for goodness knows how many years took a financial sabbatical break! Anyway you get my drift I am sure.

Despite having a really organised Activities Member for the branch in the form of Tiny Adams, the Chairman decided to get in on the act by personally announcing there would be 2 additional social nights to our annual calendar of events which he would run personally.

The first would be a Quiz Night with questions on anything with a tenuous military flavour whether ancient or modern.

The second of his ideas was to have an Anecdote Night. This of course is every Rifleman’s perfect dream to be given the opportunity to regale a captive audience with those ever so slightly exaggerated and seemingly improbable (but absolutely true) tales we like to entertain one another with. As you can imagine both evenings went down an absolute storm.

In early January the branch had an amazing and informative tour of Winchester Cathedral. You know the old saying ‘never being able to see the wood for the trees!’ well that maxim had really applied to us because despite the branch supporting the monthly “Turning of the Pages” in considerable numbers over the years, we never really took the time or indeed the opportunity to have a real nose around the place as it was always a question of just ‘do the job and go’. Plus much of the cathedral over the last year or so had been under renovation anyway with many areas AOB’s and under scaffolding and tarpaulins so there wasn’t much of interest to really see. Finally of course all the work was complete and the builder’s equipment was eventually removed which gave Brian Scott who is also a part time Cathedral Guide the opportunity to organise a fully guided tour for members of the branch, family and friends. It was a thoroughly enjoyable and informative day which we will definitely do again.

“If you want something done well use a busy man” and that’s certainly true of our Activities Member Tiny Adams who in addition to running his successful chauffer business still manages to find the time to organise lots of interesting trips for the branch. On this occasion in May it was a day out to the Imperial War Museum at RAF Duxford Cambridgeshire, and what a great day it turned out to be.

The weather for once was on our side and the journey there and back in our hired minibus was trouble free. As for the museum itself –well what can I say other than ask “who isn’t interested in big strange flying things” with some even looking as they were leftover props from the Star Wars movies –but of course they are

all very real! If anyone is thinking of going please consider doing so as you will be assured of a fantastic day out.

In June Tiny Adams together with a small contingent from the branch of Andy Gray and Stephen Horsley represented the RGJA at Lepe Beach on the edge of the New Forest for the 75th anniversary of the D Day Landings on the 6th June 1944. Although a bit of a backwater these days Lepe was the main construction and launch site for the floating concrete ‘mulberry harbours’ used during the invasion. Although the Regiment wasn’t involved in this particular part of Operation Overlord it was nevertheless felt the right thing to do to support such a momentous military event in the history of our island. Before we knew it the Summer was upon us, and once again we found ourselves involved in organising the Veterans Reunion in July under the guiding hand of his Royness; And of course attending the NIVA Service of Remembrance in mid-September at the NMA Alrewas I hope everyone who attened enjoyed the occasion and will come again in even bigger numbers in 2020. As far as the latter is concerned –well what can I say other than the number of green blazers on parade were and are truly indicative of our dominance of that particular campaign. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise! Aside from that it was also a mini reunion too with the icing on the cake (or should I say curry?) being the

wonderful lunch afterwards which was organised to perfection by the Central England Branch rounded off a superb day out!

As the Autumn really began to set in, we like every other branch around the country found ourselves once again heavily involved with Remembrance. I should imagine we are not totally unique in our Remembrance activity, aside from London that is, but being where we are we do tend to stretch ourselves more than most branches I guess. For example did you know we take the lead very early in the morning (9am) for the KRRC Service of Remembrance at the 60th Memorial outside the main entrance of the Cathedral. This is always well attended (300 plus) and usually lasts about 20 minutes or so. Then it’s either straight into the Cathedral for the main Service of Remembrance or a quick dash to the ATR where they hold their own Drumhead Service. This year however the ATR did something quite different, which I thought was a nice touch, and that was instead of holding the service in the barracks as normal, all the recruits and staff (including our own honorary members of the ATR) went out to a number of nearby villages to support their individual services. However once all the mad activity of the morning was finally over, we all converged on South Winchester Golf club to enjoy a superb 2 course carvery lunch organised by Brian Scott.

Also late in the year, I think it was about November time, a little story emerged involving one of our oldest members John ‘Geordie’ Scott. John was always slightly put out by the fact that he had never been awarded the LS&GC due to his conduct sheet being as long as his service! A situation made even worse on so many occasions when typical Rifleman like banter highlighted his lack of a medal in that department. It was compounded even more when the SNCO’s of the ATR Mess in which John is an Honorary

Member joined in too. During one of these banter sessions when John was wearing his medals it was noticed that his first operational Kenya campaign medal depicted the Queen without a crown (pre Coronation), and his second the GSM for Borneo & Malaya depicted the Queen with a crown (post Coronation). Anyway what initially started off as a

Blast from the past! Brian Scott (M-F) circa early 20th century, diffy his BD top it is noticed

And finally - with Christmas only a few weeks away it was time for our annual Christmas Dinner which was again held in the South Winchester Golf Club. Roy seemed to run the place (as he seems to do everything else) we thought we would give it a try - and what a success it has turned out to be. Every function we hold there is exclusive us, the food is second to none and above all it’s very affordable. In other words a winner!

As for our Christmas Dinner we sat down with 68 diners in splendid surroundings with all the Christmas poppers, crazy hats, crackers and general seasonal razzmatazz you could wish for - including everyone having a 1 in 2 chance of winning a raffle prize! I wish we could have the same odds on the lottery!

John FD

John Scott Receiving his QCM

bit of fun soon turned to sympathy for the poor medal-less man and before you could say ‘Swift & Bold’ a 1953 Queen’s Coronation Medal (wearing a crown) was found by the ATR staff and presented to John by Col Michael Duff Comd SED at one of the recruits POP’s. Despite that - has he stopped Winchester Formal/Informal Branch Meetings for 2020

Unless otherwise stated all branch meetings commence at 19.30 and are held in the WO’s & Sgts Mess ATR Winchester.

In addition to our formal/Informal branch meetings we do of course hold many other activities and visits throughout the year. For further information on these or if you are interested in joining the branch please contact the Secretary whose details are on the contacts page.