2442 Air Cadets Squadron - the proud Legacy of 'The Few'

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.

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.

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.

Sea Cadets today, tomorrow... the world!

Appropriate, I suppose, that on armed forces day I spent a lot of the time talking to the new chairman of Filton Sea Cadets.
The cadets have done incredibly well, but working from very ramshackle premises at the Horfield TA centre. We discussed fund raising, the possibility of raising enough funds to completely rebuild the existing site - and the enormous potential for reaching out into local schools. As ever, I left thinking... a lot to be done.

We will remember them

At 10.30am, it started to pour down. But the stalwart crowds who were assembled to pay their respects to the fallen brave, and our forces fighting today were not to be put off by a bit of rain.
As we laid our wreaths and sang hymns, and finished with the national anthem, I doubt there were many of us there who were not thinking of the enormous sacrifices our armed forces are taking at this very moment. Our thoughts today go out to all those who have served and fallen in the past, and all those serving in our armed forces today, and their families. Today is a special day of remembrance, but every day is a day to be acutely mindful of the magnitude of the risks being taken, and the sacrifices being made by our armed forces.

The Royal British Legion Club - about Remembrance and more

I was at the Westbury on Trym Royal British Legion Club's AGM last night ( This isn't it. This is me pulling the world's frothiest pint behind the bar. I blame the fact I was worrying about my camera, but my old employees at The Fox pub in Easter Compton will testify what a rubbish barmaid I was. I was mortified to find little had changed.)

I've been to a lot of AGMs in my time, but what was particularly poignant about this one was that after AOB, the last agenda item was 'Homage'. The chairman cited those words which always bring a lump to my throat

"When you go home, tell them of us and say
For your tomorrow, we gave our today"

and finally

" They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years contemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them. "

and we had a silence while we remembered the real significance of The Royal British Legion.

The Westbury Royal Legion Club is a remarkable place. It is run completely by volunteers, which is, as I discovered, why the beer is cheaper than usual. Previously, only servicemen and ex-servicemen could be members, but now it is open to anyone ready to join the club. I can't recommend it highly enough - not only because of the great facilities and good company, but because it is a very good and appropriate way to Remember.

Remembrance Sunday - a poppy is only the beginning

In the cold drizzle at the war memorial in Westbury on Trym, I laid a wreath this morning.

I think Remembrance Sunday is one of the most sobering and significant days of the year. My granddad fought in the second world war and was awarded the Military Cross for bravery. Unthinkable numbers like him died in performing extraordinary acts of bravery and sacrifice.

Sometimes I worry that the easy wearing of a poppy (costs around a pound or so, depending on how generous you feel) can become a substitute for thinking hard about what it, and the day, actually signifies.

It signifies remembrance for those who gave their lives so we can enjoy the life we live today. It signifies recognition of a generation who lived and fought in their own various ways through two bloody world wars not so very long ago. And it signifies remembrance and respect for our armed forces fighting today, and those lost in recent conflicts.

But as we nationally stand round our war memorials, wearing poppies and listening to Elgar's Nimrod or the the last post , our armed forces are struggling in Iraq and Afghanistan with out-of-date equipment, inadequate investment and insufficiently protected vehicles.

At home, pensioners, some of whom lived and fought through the second world war, are living on the breadline or below, with their pension funds robbed by Gordon Brown, and now struggling with interest rate cuts and fuel heating bills. Old people who survived the blitz will be struggling to live through the credit crunch.

Equipping our armed forces for the conflict to which the Government has committed them and supporting our elderly and giving them the recognition they deserve for seeing this country through its darkest hours are the true emblems of remembrance for our war dead.

If we are not prepared to protect our armed forces by providing them with proper equipment, and if we are not prepared to protect and look after our elderly and veterans today - by providing residential wardens where they are needed, and ensuring that 'independence' does not simply mean 'on your own', - wearing a poppy is little more than simply sticking a red bit of card on the lapel.