Potteries and District REME Association – January 2023 Monthly Newsletter

Farewell to 2022 and welcome to 2023, and at the time of writing all our Branch members have survived the festive season and the illnesses that plagued them in the past twelve months.

The beginning of January saw our most mature Branch member reach the birthday milestone of 98 years young. Mrs Margaret Paling was one of the very first ladies to be badged to REME during the dark days of the last war; serving in the Middle East/Mediterranean theatre of operations at their HQ in Caserta Palace in Italy. She witnessed the surrender of all Italian forces in 1943, (and subsequently heard the sounds of summary execution of several high-ranking enemy Officers). We wish Margaret continued good health during the year ahead.

The Palace of Caserta is the largest former royal palace in Europe, originally built in the eighteenth century for the Kings of Naples. It has five floors accommodating 1,200 rooms, and between 1923 to 1943 was the home of the Italian Air Force Academy. It was the Allied Forces Headquarters of the Supreme Allied Commander and in 1945 was the site of the unconditional surrender of between 600,000 and 900,000 German troops on the Italian Front Line. ln1997 it was designated a UNESCO Heritage Site.

It seems very unlikely that our Branch Committee elected for the 2022/2023 year will see many changes this time round. Like most other Branches and groups it is very hard to get volunteers to come forward to fill posts. The additions for this year are the very welcome appointments of not one, but two retired Lt Cols as Branch Vice Presidents, Lt Col (Retd) John Edwards OBE has now relocated back home to Staffordshire and his beloved Stoke City in the latter months of last year. Arborfield Branch loss is our gain. Lt Col (Retd) Gary Feek has also accepted the appointment as a Branch vice-President. Their combined experiences and ideas should hopefully give some new impetus to the branch.

Most Branches have an unsung hero or two who can be counted on to go above and beyond for the good of the Branch, and one such is our very own Branch photographer Mr John Hubbert, who has taken it upon himself over many years to record our activities and indeed supply many pictures for inclusion in the pages of The Craftsman.

It would be unfair at this time not to mention his Wife Joan who is a godsend to the Branch, and provides us at our monthly Branch meetings with trays of sandwiches, and is a staunch supporter of all Branch activities.

Our main Branch targets for this year have to include retaining and increasing our Branch membership, and also of strengthening our interaction and ties with the LADs within the everenlarging Stafford Garrison. Hopefully our Branch member, and man on the ground, retired Lt Col Gary Feek can be the key to this with his frequent visits to the garrison as a uniformed retired Officer.

With this years Armed Forces Day being on Sunday 4th June, we as a Branch will be supporting the City of Stoke-onTrent’s Armed Forces Day which takes place in Longton Park and attracts several thousand people annually. We will no doubt be supporting several annual events at the National Memorial Arboretum parading our Branch Standard at the Arborfield Old Boys Association and National Army Apprentice Day services as well as the Corps Day service.

We had our usual four or five Branch members in London in November for the annual Remembrance March Past Parade.

We are now sorting out our monthly lunch date venues for the year ahead with a mix of new places, as well as a few returns to those we have enjoyed in months passed.

These once a month social gathering give some of those members who cannot join us for whatever reason at our evening Branch meetings an opportunity to get out and about for one day a month, to sit down and have a meal and a chat with likeminded people, and help to keep the REME family together.

Hopefully our social life this year will not see a repeat of the nine funerals we attended during the year.

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