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| Is the blurring anything to do with the toasts with port? Who can say... |
When I was very young, I often thought about going into the military. My granddad was a colonel in the Middlesex Regiment and my mum had been brought up in a military family - staying at boarding school, going back to various different homes, Cyprus, Germany, as her mum and dad were posted around the world.
I still have a copy of a photo, signed by
Montgomery, of my granddad receiving the
Military Cross for bravery, from him; so in some ways, the values of military service were still around in my family as I was growing up even though my grandfather died when I was six.
However, I never did go into the Services, but now the
British Military Tournament has been resurrected I take my family every year, and my admiration for our armed forces is tremendous.
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| Cadets drill in the co-op carpark... |
I may not have received a medal for outstanding bravery over the weekend - but I was still very proud to receive my certificate for being made Honorary President of Westbury-Trym's superb
2442 Air Cadets Squadron at their Annual Dinner in Westbury Village Hall. The Cadets did themselves proud, especially with some beautiful readings and poems.
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| My grandfather, Colonel Rex Waller, receiving a medal for bravery from Field Marshall Montgomery |
Whenever I see the Cadets in action I am impressed by their discipline and maturity. The cadets may hail from all sorts of different backgrounds, but they are all absolutely united in their identity as cadets. I sometimes feel very old as I look on the discipline, and ethos of duty and service that these young men and women encompass, and am conscious of being grateful that our next generation hold such values so proudly. I hope that values like duty, service, and bravery will not be seen as 'old fashioned values' - but values of today, alive and vibrant in young people like our superb 2442 Squadron Air Cadets.
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