GBA Dinner

GURKHA BRIGADE DINNER 7 November 2019

At my last attendance of the annual GBA Dinner, Margaret Thatcher was PM, Sir John Chapple had just taken over as CGS, John Anderson was CO and I was a subaltern based at Church Crookham. That was 31 years ago. My abiding memory of that event was that the antecedent regiments, from the pre-partition Brigade, were there in force. Most could still muster a table of ten and I believe that the 5th had two that year. It is with great sadness, with the benefit of hindsight, that we didn’t get to spend more time conversing with them that evening as their associations would shortly come to a natural end.

This time it was clear that we were now representing a bygone era as those who had served in a preto amass one table of those who had served with the 6th, we typically punched above our weight in the jovial banter stakes (waistlines had clearly increased over the years too) and Jeremy Brade had us laying wagers on the length of the after dinner speeches. We did lose the facial hair award to 7 GR who resembled a collection of ageing hipsters from Shoreditch but maybe not that smart. John won the prize for the most sequential GBA dinners attended – over twenty and counting. with Brigade friends, I was also extremely interested to attend the pre-dinner briefings from the new Colonel BG, Jody Davies, and from Al Howard and the GWT. Both proved fascinating and I am sure the gist of what is happening in today’s Brigade and the welfare arena will be written about elsewhere in this publication. What was pleasing to hear was that recruitment into the Brigade will increase in 2020 to a level not seen since 1988. The future is undoubtedly brighter than it has been for many years.

After dinner we adjourned to bars various to continue with the reminiscing and to meet some of the serving ‘youngsters’. I found it amusing when chatting with amalgamation regiment. Although we were only able

the GM of 1 RGR to find out that he had enlisted the year before I retired. How time marches on.

Last time the ‘sano sahebs’ moved on to Chelsea in search of the bright lights. Jeremy even found a wife that very evening. This time we drifted across St James’s Square to the In and Out to gate crash the Fleet Air Arm’s Taranto guest night. Needless to say, the Generals led the way. A big thank you to Mani and Niall for all they did on the organisational front; it was an exceptionally good evening. Hopefully I won’t take three decades to make it to the next one.

Not only had I been looking forward to catching up

James Cheshire