The Royal Green Jackets Association
CENTRAL ENGLAND BRANCH Greetings to our fellow Officers, Riflemen and family members reading this, our summary of events for 2019. It is fair to say that the Central England Branch have had a quiet year by our standards. Nonetheless, we have been ever present and despite a 'dampening down' of events, we are always looking ahead as to how best we can move forward as a branch. This, we believe, is done by finding the balance between formal and social events for the diary. Within this reporting year, there has been no difference. We usually aim to meet up every 2 – 3 months dependent upon what is happening and in doing so maintain an even balance across the year without expecting our members to be worrying about cost and expenditure. In terms of our contribution to Swift and Bold, we have for the past few years had the luxury of being able to 'wax lyrical' about our flagship event the 'Greenstock Festival'. However, we decided that in 2019 there was to be a ‘fallow’ year for those involved with the planning and execution of such a busy event.
BANNER' Service of Remembrance at the National Memorial Arboretum, followed mid-afternoon by a late lunch, and a few beers, together with 200 RGJ veterans from around the country, at Lichfield Rugby Club. 2019 also saw the annual November Remembrance Sunday Parade followed, in December, by another of our greatly anticipated functions, the Rifleman’s Christmas Ball. We continue to keep a watching brief on the Regimental Memorial at the National Memorial Arboretum (NMA) at Alrewas, but with the freak weather we experienced in late 2019, the River Trent saw a significant rise in the water level, with a month’s worth of rain falling in just a few hours. This, in turn, led to the River Trent bursting its banks leaving half of the NMA flooded for a couple of weeks. The drainage system installed back in 2010 by the NMA grounds’ maintenance staff was simply overwhelmed.
Although, I can confirm that we have moved swiftly to ensure that 2020 is well and truly endorsed and underlined for its return. Greenstock 'V' (The Retreat from Corunna) is at DEFCON 4 in terms of planning, organisation and admin. We just need to ensure that the event receives maximum publicity coupled with great interest from you, the reader, by supporting the event. Incidentally, check out the poster within the 2019 S&B Journal or our events page on Facebook: Greenstock Festival for further details.
There appears to be no damage as we go to press but our memorial will be professionally surveyed once the spring arrives. An Association Council decision will, no doubt, then be taken in terms of what precautions can, if any, be implemented!
Central England Branch have coasted along nicely with a fluctuating number of members but this has had little effect on the success of our events. A good example of this being in September when we were blessed with a fantastic day and by a great attendance at the 50th Anniversary of 'OP
Last year saw a wide stretch between our last event of 2018 which was the Riflemans' Christmas Ball in December and the first get together in late February which was a meeting held at our old, but refurbished, watering 17
