Yorkshire Branch Report

We continue to meet at the T.A. Centre in Wakefield on the fourth Tuesday in the month from March to October inclusively.

The Branch Officers are:

President : Capt. A B C (Kit) Dollard 3RGJ

Chairman : Thomas (Charles) Conlin 1 RGJ

Treasurer: John (Ebeneezer) Woods KRRC

Secretary : Stuart Anderson RB

The Branch remains financially secure despite a paucity of members. I am delighted to report that we have lost no one in 2019 and pleased that there are more of us than at the start of the year, an increase of one to be precise. Hugh Goudge, a stalwart member, in now the Membership Secretary of the Association. Next year he will appear as an officer of this branch, promotion indeed.

In March the Treasurer and the Secretary attended the funeral in Huddersfield of Doreen Ball the widow of Rod Ball KRRC who had been a founder member of the Yorkshire Branch. At Rod’s funeral we had a guard of honour of branch members through which the coffin was carried followed by Doreen who inspected us as befitted the wife of a senior NCO. This time it was their daughters, Cheryl and Adele, who led the mourners by the honour guard, reduced by time and fate to 2, namely the Treasurer and myself. I have to report that we each received a kiss on this occasion.

During the service, which was a most moving and friendly gathering, we discovered that Doreen had been introduced to her future husband by her sister during the playing of Glen Millers’ String of Pearls. The sister went onto marry Lewis Austin KRRC who was also a founder member of our Branch. There was a final Green Jacket connetion still to come because at the reception afterwards we were introduced to a slim gentleman who bore the distinctive name of Paul Squirrel which may not be the correct spelling. He served with 2RGJ during 1966-71 before transferring to the Pay Corps. His father, Squirrel Senior, had been a good friend and fellow comrade of Rod Ball. Paul now lives in Ipswich and is (a) a football fan and (b) a long distance runner in the over 70s category.

On Saturday 14th September the Secretary accompanied by Valerie set off for the Arboretum from Selby to take part in the NIVA Service of Remembrance. We were to meet our fellow Branch member Hugh Goudge and Julia who journeyed from Wakefield. We also hoped to be joined by Ernie Blanchard ex 3RGJ and Light Infantry.

As Valerie and I reached the entrance to the car park Hugh and Julia were emerging. Valerie had to be pushed in her wheelchair down the long road to the Arboretum entrance.

It was another very hot day and there were Green Jackets and Light Infantry veterans everywhere. Those wearing green seemed to be in the majority. All milled about outside the main Arboretum Centre which included the Chapel into which only invited guests could enter. When the service ended there was a general movement down a slope to a road that led to the Ulster Ash Grove. I believe this causeway is called Millenium Avenue and upon which the marchers formed up. Valerie, pushing her own wheelchair, and Julia ambled towards the Ash Grove. I joined a large squad of members of the RGJ and stood next to a young man of 40 who was scarcely half my age. He had provided himself with a flask of whiskey and thoughtfully shared it with those close at hand which included myself. He wore a hearing aid and I assumed correctly that he had been in a mortar platoon as I had been. Hugh Goudge, once known as Albert, was in command as he was a former

RSM and his parade ground voice was heard for the first time in over twenty years to my disbelief. He was assisted in his duties by an ex Light Infantry RSM and between them we rehearsed some of the forthcoming manoeuvres. Finally, Hugh drew forth with one of the buglers who had been pressed into beating the drum in the absence of the regular drummer. This man, who is known to me, told me later that he had never played the drum before. I thought he did quite well but those, more pernickety, may have disagreed.

Whatever the merits of the substitute drummer we set off in good order and to my relief soon got to the Ash Grove where we fell out for the very moving Act of Remembrance during which General Pascoe gave a brief resume of the campaign in Northern Ireland.

We then formed up again and marched smartly back towards the Green Jacket Memorial saluting on the way the General and the Staffordshire Vice Lord Lieutenant. There was another ceremony there during which all the Green Jackets who had lost their lives during the Troubles were mentioned including Bandsman Powell and his comrades at the Bandstand Bombing in Regents Park.

We said farewell to Ernie Blanchard and made our way to the Rugby Club at Lichfield a few miles south for our lunch. All this time the sun shone brightly from a clear sky. There was a large marquee set up by the clubhouse and we four luckily found a table for eight by an open flap of the marquee which allowed a pleasant cooling breeze to flow in. We shared a table with the Green Jacket and his wife. The man had served at the same time as Hugh and knew him. The other couple were dressed alike as Paramedics and were man and wife. The lunch buffet that followed, curry and other Indian dishes, was the best I’ve experienced. The Secretary was informed by the Rifles Office at Pontefract of the funeral of a Green Jacket at Great Houghton near Barnsley on 18th November. The deceased was John Sparks who had served with 2RGJ and had died on 3rd November aged 40. The Branch member David Broomfield who accompanied me to Great Houghton was by chance was another former 2RGJ member, although a good number of years older than John Sparks. David is able to walk short distances but otherwise uses a mobility scooter which would not fit into my car. Neither of us had been in the area before and we arrived in the vicinity of the church at the last possible minute and parked in the grounds of a café.

As we made our way up the hill to the church, we could see a crowd of mourners gathered outside. We assumed they were trying to get as close as possible to the entrance as the inside was crowded to the gunnels. Close to the porch stood the bugler, Kevin Fawcett, who was in the KOYLI/LI. He said he had been asked to play at the grave side. The Standard Bearer, Colin Cranswick, who was also a KOYLI veteran, was inside.

On both sides of the road stood other mourners most of whom were dressed in black, and in memory almost all were short in stature and sturdily built. There were few women outside so perhaps they had had priority for gaining places in the church. I said to one man that judging by the number willing to wait outside in the cold that John Sparks must have been well-liked. ‘John was a lovely man’ he replied. In the distance Barnsley could be seen with the Town Hall and Hospital visible on the skyline.

Another man spoke to me and said that he had served in the Green Jackets as had his father before him. The latter had been RSM in the 3rd Battalion in the 1980’s. The son, whose name was Stuart Le Couillitard, had served in the 2RGJ between 1994 and 2018. I thought later that he