Colerne Branch

Newsletter

Royal British Legion

Inside this issue

Annual General Meeting …….1

National Memorial Arboretum Trip/ Sponsored Cycle Ride ..2

Remembrance Parade........ ..2

Festival of Remembrance Tick-ets ……………………………………..2

Social Evening .................... ..2

Harvest Festival ................. ..3

Homecoming Parade 244 Sqn ........................................... ..3

Children’s Halloween Disco …3

Coffee Mornings................. ..3

Dates for your Diary …………..4

Communication…………………..4

October 2013 Volume 1, Issue 2

A Word from the Editor

Buoyed by the enthusiastic feedback following the last newsletter, I write

to give you the latest information on what we have been up to and what

is planned for the coming months.

This is a very busy period for us with the key event of the year Remem-

brance Sunday less than a month away.

In this article you can read about the events since I last wrote. These

include hosting a very successful and well supported social evening in the

Sergeant’s Mess, hosting the homecoming parade for 244 Squadron as

well as holding a Coffee Morning with Bingo and the Harvest Festival.

We also organised another trip to the National Memorial Arboretum and

raised over £1000 for the RBL through an ambitious sponsored bike ride.

The Newsletter also provides details on some of the activities planned up

until Christmas as well as some of the ideas that we will be trying out to

help improve our communications with you all.

Annual General Meeting - Wed 12 November

Your Branch - Your say - Don’t miss the chance to shape the future

This year’s AGM will be held in the Con Club at 200hrs on Wed 12 Nov

please come along and support the meeting and let us have your

thoughts and ideas for improving the branch.

Anyone who cannot make it but would like to offer some proposals for

improving the branch is invited to contact the Chairman or any other

committee member. Contact details are on the back of the newsletter.

Perfectionists

Congratulations to all those who correctly identified all the

mistakes in the last Newsletter. This month we have again

made a few and we welcome your feedback - the one that

spots the most can claim a free drink off the Chairman.

Remembrance Parade

This year’s Remembrance Parade will take place

on Sunday 10 November. It will begin with a

march from the Con Club to the War Memorial

and all members are encouraged to come and

join the march.

National Memorial Arboretum Trip & Sponsored Cycle Ride

At 5am, while most of the village was fast asleep, 4 cyclist

headed off in the darkness on a 116 mile trek to the Na-

tional memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire. By the time

the sun rose they were already passed Stroud and going

strong. The four riders were the Chairman Andy Williams,

Captain James Corns and Cpl Wayne Derham from 21 Sig-

nals Regiment and Mike Batty from Marshfield, a civil serv-

ant working for the MOD. They took turns to lead the pack

and kept a great pace eventually reaching the end at 1300

to be greeted by a Spitfire flypast. It wasn’t there to greet

us - it was part of the Ride to The Wall event, which in-

volved over 7000 Motorbikes converging at the Arboretum.

Some other members of the RBL took a more sensible and

leisurely drive to the venue and met the cyclists for a photo

and to congratulate them.

At 1400 Andy threw some essentially supplies into a ruck

sack and then set off home on his bike alone while the re-

mainder of the party enjoyed a very emotional and poign-

ant service of dedication as part of the day’s activities at

the Arboretum.

The party met up with Andy just outside Evesham at

around 1720 and gave some well needed moral support

before watching him set off for the finale leg not to be seen

again until he appeared at the Fox and Hounds at 2145,

ready for a well earned pint!

The team of four managed to raise over £1200 between

them for the RBL and Andy is promised that some of the

riders ‘Might’ join him on the way back next year! - They

must have been drinking!!!

2

Festival of Remembrance Tickets - Last Chance

We have purchased 8 tickets for the annual National

Festival of Remembrance event in London on Satur-

day 11th November 2013.

The tickets are for the afternoon performance that

begins at 1400hrs .

The plan is to drive to London by mini-bus at £20 per

person rather than train.

There are still a few tickets available for the event at

£18 each (£38 including transport) so if anyone wish-

es to come along then please contact Andy on 07411

650337

Anyone who wishes to attend but get there under

their own arrangements can do so by contacting the

box office direct on 0845 401 5034.

What a great night we had at the Sergeants and Warrant Officers

Mess. It was wonderful to see so many of you come along,. The RSM

and SSM Robertson were excellent hosts.

The conversation was easy and the atmosphere was very relaxed.

On the evening SSM Robertson presented a £590 donation to the RBL,

the proceeds from an auction that he had organized at their Summer

Function. We are extremely grateful for the financial and morale sup-

port they have so generously given.

So when is the next one I hear you ask. Well you’ll be delighted to

know that the RSM is keen to have us back and so we will be looking

to find a convenient date for another event. I will keep you posted!

Social Meet and Greet - 4th Sep

Homecoming Parade for Bravo Troop 244th Signal Squadron

Officer Commanding 244th Signal Squadron

would like to thank the Royal British Legion for

making their homecoming parade and thanks-

giving service such a success.

The event was held at the War Memorial follow-

ing a march from the Con Club. The soldiers on

parade were accompanied by members of the

RBL and the Air Training Corps. The Open Air for-

mat of the ceremony was a real hit with the villag-

ers who said how they felt part of the whole cere-

mony rather than just spectators.

Having spent 4 months in Afghanistan supporting combat opera-

tions by providing vital ground to air communications, Bravo Troop

received a warm welcome back to home soil. The day provided a

fitting end to their tour and it was good to see such a high turn out

from the village to support and congratulate them on their safe re-

turn.

3

Coffee Mornings - FREE!

We have arranged for a weekly Coffee

Morning to be held from 0900-1100 on

Wednesday mornings at the Colerne

Café.

A free coffee or tea awaits you on pro-

duction of your RBL Membership card.

If you would like transport to get you

their and back then please contact Tom

Hall and we will do our best to get you

there.

Harvest Festival - Saturday 7th October This year’s Harvest Festival took a slightly different format due to a

double booking of the Con Club, which meant we couldn’t use it in the

evening to auction the produce. So the committee decided that we

would instead donate the produce to the Luncheon Club. This way the

Legion would be helping people from our local community.

A big thank you to all those people who came along and supported the

event and to those that donated produce, I know it was really appreci-

ated by Lavinia and Erica and all those at the Luncheon Club.

Another big thank you to Tony and Sandra for organizing the Bingo and

keeping everyone entertained, they really did a great job.

The final thanks go to Sharon and Natalie for providing the free coffee

and tea and a wonderful selection of home-made cakes.

Children’s Halloween Disco -

Wed 25th October We have organized a Children’s Disco

for children under 12. The Disco will

take place in the Con Club from 1700-

1900hrs on Wed 25th October in the

Con Club. Entry will be Free and there

will be some small prizes for best fan-

cy dress and some competitions.

It will be great to see as many people

as possible come along to the event.

No tickets required just turn up at the

Con Club at 1700hrs in fancy dress.

Wed 25 October—Children’s Halloween Disco - Lib Club

Sun 10 November—Remembrance Parade—Colerne Vil-

lage

Wed 12 Nov - Annual General Meeting - Con Club

Wed 20 November—Social Meet and Greet - Lib Club

Fri 6th December—Christmas Draw—Constitutional Club

Dates for Your Diary

Branch Wardens Initiative

In an effort to help the committee become more than a faceless group of people that organise and run events for

the branch, we have decided to create some branch wardens. The membership will be divided into geographical

groups with each allocated their own warden. Each warden will get to know the members within their area and

you will have a more accessible branch committee member to deal with your needs and help communicate what is

going on and represent your views and opinions at committee meetings. There are likely to be 6 Geographical areas,

which are likely to be Thickwood, Pinewood and camp area, and then 3 areas within the main village as well as a postal

member for those who do not live within the village area. We will confirm details in the next issues but don’t be sur-

prised if one of us knocks on your door one day - we’re here to help.

For more Information on the Colerne

Branch of the Royal British Legion please

contact the Chairman:

Andy Williams

2 Grocyn Close

Colerne

Wiltshire

SN14 8DZ

Phone: 07411 650337

E-mail: williams.leadership@gmail.com

Communication

The branch has purchased two banners which we are using to help promote some of the events that

we have going on. To generate maximum publicity. From these banners we have decided to keep

one on the railings of the War Memorial facing the CostCutters Shop and are looking to place the oth-

er along Bath road to capture those entering the village from Bath.

Please look out for the any updates to what’s on.

Committee members

President: Vacant

Chairman—Andy Williams

Vice-Chairman—Mark Miller

Entertainments: Tom Hall

Treasurer: Mark Miller

Secretary: Tom Walker

Welfare: Alasdair Campbell–Collins,

Paul Jobbins

Standard Bearer: Tony Burgess

Poppy Appeal Co-ordinators: Martyn Peel,

Nicky Jobbins

Membership Update

Welcome to Ben Pike, Andy Stickley

and Brian Harvey who have all joined

us recently.

We hope to see lots of you and wel-

come your fresh ideas for how we can

improve the Branch.