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Registered Charity 219279
BRANCH SECRETARIES: PLEASE NOTE THAT THE ITEMS IN THIS MONTHLY CIRCULAR
SHOULD FORM PART OF THE REPORT TO YOUR BRANCH COMMITTEE
A MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTOR GENERAL
Dear Colleagues
The Poppy Appeal has finished as quickly as it started and the early signs are that this year has been one of our most successful yet. I’d like to personally thank you all for your outstanding commitment and excellent work throughout the period – without your efforts the Appeal would not have been possible.
In the countdown to Remembrance, a huge range of activity was consistently happening – there wasn’t a dull moment. In London, Prince Harry placed a poppy cross of Remembrance at the field of crosses placed at Westminster Abbey on behalf of bereaved military families whilst in Barnby in Suffolk 1,000 hand-made poppies were dotted around the village leaving locals both bemused and touched.
Meanwhile, the city poppy days demonstrated the enormous level of support there is for the Poppy Appeal nationwide. London, Bristol, Manchester, Birmingham and Plymouth were the key ones but collecting by our volunteers took place far and wide in communities large and small throughout the country.
Remembrance weekend was full of poignancy and hope, and with 2014 being the year of the World War One Centenary and British troops leaving Afghanistan, the Festival of Remembrance was one of the most memorable in Legion history - the team who organised it did a phenomenal job. Standard bearers made their entrance under the Live On banner, D-Day veteran Jim Radford’s shanty “Shores of Normandy” brought a tear to the audience’s eye, Joss Stone belted out the Poppy Appeal single ‘No Man’s Land’ and the Right Reverend Nigel McCulloch led a moving inter-faith service.
On Remembrance Sunday, HM the Queen was applauded in a rare public outburst at the Cenotaph, Whitehall was overflowing as members of the public paid respects and a total of 10,883 veterans proudly joined the march.
The Remembrance season always closes with Silence in the Square and this was once again a rare and remarkable occasion in which comradeship is captured; thousands of people joining together to mark the Two Minute Silence in paying their respects for the fallen.
KENT COUNTY NEWS
TRBL South East Area Office (Kent)
Royal British Legion Village
Aylesford, Kent ME20 7NL
Membership Support Officer
Mobile - 07554 553263
e-mail - [email protected]
Welfare & Fundraising
via Contact Centre - 0808 802 8080
General e-mail: [email protected]
County website: www.britishlegion.org.uk/counties/kent
December 2014
All of you have undoubtedly contributed to an immense rise in our profile and impacted on another incredible Appeal.
Well done, thank you and best wishes.
Chris Simpkins Director General
COUNTY CHAIRMAN`S REMARKS
All Branches should have held their AGMs by now and I trust you all managed to get full Committees.
Please note that all requests for Branch Standards to attend events must go through the Branch Chairman. Only the Chairman can give permission for the Standard to attend. It must also be noted that the County Colour Party includes the County Chairman, the Women’s Section County Chairman, both Standards and the Parade Marshal. Application forms for the Colour Party are held by the Membership Support Officer.
Do not forget if you wish to have delegates at the County and National Conferences your Branch accounts MUST have been in by 30th September and your MS1s MUST be in by 31st December. This also applies if you want tickets for next year’s Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall.
I would like to wish you all a Happy Christmas and a Healthy New Year.
Aussie Walker
DONATIONS TO COUNTY FUNDS
The following donations have been gratefully received:
£10 Mr D J Windsor £35 University of the Third Age (U3A) £220 Church of St Peter & St Paul, Lynsted £35 Queen Elizabeth Lodge, Margate
KENT OFFICE CHRISTMAS CLOSING
The Kent Office will close at midday on Tuesday 24th December therefore no one will be in the office to answer telephones or e-mails or to accept mail after that date until the office re-opens on Friday 2nd January 2015. (Please see following item). ANNUAL RETURNS - MS1s
This is the final reminder that MS1s must be at County Office by no later than 31st December. However, please see the above notice concerning the office closure. MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION FORMS
Please ensure this information is passed to the Branch Membership Secretary
This is a reminder that the existing MS4/12 will no longer be accepted after 31st December. I would suggest that the latest date that they can be received in this office is This is your last chance to use up your stocks of these but you should have a supply of the new MS4/13 by now.
Form MS4/13 has not been designed to be printed at home. The copy obtained that way is very difficult for CDI staff to process so please use only original copies of the form as obtained from the Poppy Appeal by contacting [email protected] or 01622 795801. Stocks of MS4s are NOT held at County Office.
CAROL SERVICE
The annual County Carol Service will take place at 3 pm on Saturday 13th December in the Community Hall at the Capel Morris Centre in the Royal British Legion Village. All are welcome. ANNUAL COUNTY CONFERENCE 2015
Next year’s County Conference will take place at Headcorn Village Hall on Saturday 17th January commencing at 1 pm. Branch secretaries will now have received the papers they will need. All paperwork concerning Conference has been printed on green paper to make it immediately identifiable. Please remember, if you wish to send a delegate to County Conference or to Annual Conference in May your R&P / Branch Accounts form must be received at County Office by 30th September, your MS1 must be received by 31st December and your Annual Membership Fees must have been paid by 31st March. Remember, if your Branch Delegate does not attend your voice can not be heard. This is your chance to put your points of view over for discussion. Delegate applications must be received at County Office by no later than Friday 5th December.
The guest speaker will be the Director of Operations, Sue Freeth. There will be time for a question and answer session and it is hoped that all branches will make an extra effort to attend so that they can put any questions to her. Questions should have been submitted to the Membership Support Officer by no later than 2nd December but to date none have been received. If your branch has anything concerning the Legion for the Director please forward them now to give her time to obtain answers.
There will also be a short presentation from Membership’s Debbie Kimpton who will talk about changes to membership that will affect every branch and its members. Designated the Comradeship Services Project it means there is to be a big change to the way membership is managed. There is to be a new database, new payment methods and, significantly, anniversary membership is to be introduced. This is an important presentation, with time for questions afterwards, and therefore there should be at least one delegate or representative from each branch who can pass the information to their branch committee.
Steve Woolford Conference Secretary
YOUTH MEMBERSHIP
I have a message for all of you who would like to recruit Youth members – and hopefully that is every single one of you!
Here is a tip that I have tried and tested successfully. As a Branch, we have paid for Youth membership for every affiliated cadet who helped out this year with our supermarket poppy appeal collections. We were going to finance this from a raffle held at our Branch dinner but then one generous-minded member offered to pay out of his own pocket so we graciously accepted, although it would only have cost us £35 from the raffle funds.
We visited our affiliated cadet unit and the cadets and their parents were thrilled with our offer –one parent even said he would join our branch too! So this simple idea is reaping its own rewards; we have youth members and perhaps even more importantly we will, as a result, have new adult members who hopefully can be eventually persuaded to become committee members and ensure the future of the branch.
This obviously works best where there is already an affiliation in place as the contacts with the young people have already been made, but the idea could be adapted and used in schools or with any group of young people at all.
The only tools you need are a membership form and a pen for the parent to sign their agreement. What could be simpler?
Susan Foster County Youth Officer
REMEMBRANCE DAY PARADES
Below are a couple of photos from parades and services around the County. The service in the RBL Village took place at the new Garden of Honour in the Village which was made ready for the event.
RBL Village RBL Village Garden of Honour
Faversham COWDEN, HARTFIELD & DISTRICT BRANCH
This is a photo of what could possibly be the youngest poppy sellers, with their recently awarded poppy appeal collector badges. Between them Toby and Jemima Castle (aged 11 and 9) have amassed 20 years of Poppy collecting having been out on the collection in the village every year since they were born. Over the last three years alone they have collected over £1,500. Toby of the 1st Hartfield Scouts and Jemima of the 1st Hartfield Cubs are pictured with Branch Treasurer Dave Davis MBE (left) and James Castle, Branch Standard Bearer and Poppy Appeal Organiser for Hartfield.
BIRCHINGTON
The Branch’s most recent Boot Fayre raised £574.47p for the Poppy Appeal. Also, the Branch was very proud to be represented at this year’s Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall. Our members who attended had excellent seats and a good view of the Standards entering the arena. It was a very memorable occasion for John Lewis, who carried our Standard with great pride. THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTMAS
It was cold in the trenches that Christmas, we were up to our ankles in mud, And the shells that were bursting around us brought a chill to the bravest man’s blood. Then the barrage of sound slowly faded and dwindled away to a stop. Down the line, someone shouted “Get ready. Tomorrow we’re over the top.”
As we waited expecting the order, a mate took a tin-whistle out. Soon the silence was broken by music as the spirit of Christmas poured out. One by one, the chaps joined in the singing, and the war was a thing of the past: We forgot that our reason for coming was to kill and to maim and to blast.
In the distance a voice sang a carol; we knew what it was by the range. Some Jerry had set the words winging; they sounded all foreign and strange. ‘Stille Nacht’ died away into silence. Astonished, we waited for more. “Merry Christmas,” a German voice shouted. With those words came an end to the war.
We cautiously went up to greet them, these men we’d been fighting for weeks. And we learned that a man is a person, no matter what language he speaks. Well, we smoked and we laughed and showed photos of wives and of daughters and sons. And we drank to each other that Christmas, we drank to the silence of guns.
Then one of the chaps found a football, we kicked it around for a while. Friend and foe played together like brothers, every face you could see wore a smile. But we said our goodbyes with a handshake, returned to our trenches again. I can still hear those words, “So long, Tommy”, with a feeling that’s hard to explain.
With a whistle, the fighting restarted. We asked ourselves what was it for? There was friend killing friend in those trenches where a whistle had once stopped a war. For a moment in time we’d been comrades whose friendship had crossed No Man’s Land, And we’d witnessed how enemy forces can be joined by the touch of God’s hand.
Bryan Darby Regards to you all
Tony West
Membership Support Officer Email: [email protected]
The County Chairman, committee and staff would like to wish you all a very happy Christmas
and a prosperous New Year
LEST WE FORGET
Notification has been received that the following members have passed on:
Mr Christopher Voelcker TD Cowden, Hartfield & District
Mr Wilfred Cudworth Downs
Mr Richard Ebbutt “
Mrs Eileen Mitchell Dymchurch
Mr Michael Nolan Hawkhurst
Mr Trevor Gane Maidstone
Mr John Francis Minster & Monkton
Mrs Phyllis Johnson Ramsgate
Mr Brian Bennett Royal Tunbridge Wells
Mr Sidney Blackmore Sidcup & Footscray
Our deepest sympathies go to their families and friends
KENT COUNTY DIARY OF EVENTS - 2014
DECEMBER
Sat 13th Carol Service - Capel Morris Centre (3 pm)
Wed 31st Last day for submission of MS1s to County Office
JANUARY 2015
Sat 17th County Conference - Headcorn (1 pm)
* County Recruiting Stall Updated: 24th November 2014
WW1 CENTENARY EVENTS - 2014 Update 31 Jul 2014
Date Branch Location Event Contact
D E C E M B E R
5th Swanley, Crockenhill & Hextable
Orchard Academy, Swanley
Carol Concert Harry Chapman 01322 662548 [email protected]
O T H E R S
Various - Kent War Walks Geoff Ettridge 07525 161766 [email protected]
