NEWSLETTER MAY 2020

   MEETINGS AND LUNCHES ARE TEMPORARILY SUSPENDED 

     *** THE BRANCH SENDS GOOD WISHES TO ALL OUR MEMBERS***

PLEASE STAY SAFE AND KEEP IN TOUCH

Newsletter for ‘Keeping in Touch’ May 2020  

Please note any information for the newsletter to be passed on to Jan Bridle anytime; also if anyone has changed their email address or set up a new one could they please let Jan know.

Branch subs   

This year they are reluctantly increased to £17 and are due to be paid to the treasurer now if not already paid. Please send any cheques, made out to REA Bournemouth, to the above address for John Cusack. Anybody wishing to pay on line just ring John or email him and he will give the details.  At the end of the day we have to carry on the best way we can and we still have to pay the room hire as we do not want the club to go under.

Messages  

As your Vice-President I wish to thank all of you who have kept in touch on my 12 week lock-down, it has helped me and Dot a great deal. Everybody please keep safe, keep smiling, and a Royal Engineers "chin-up".  God Save the Queen      From Bert and Dot Martin.

75^th Anniversary of V.E. Day 8^th May

Some suggestions from our members as to how we could celebrate V.E Day in Lock-down.

A glass of wine and toast each other and remember those we have loved and lost and for the sacrifice many gave to give us our freedom.

For those with flagpoles we should (and we will) all fly the Union Jack flag in the garden, for all to see, from 8th May until 15th August (V.J Day)

Richard Silsby’s daughter, up in Northampton, is having a little party at home with her two children (26 & 19) who still live at home and they will be making themed cakes and she’s looking through her cookery books to see what would have been cooked at the time of VE day. (mmm spam sarnies) She has some flags that she will be putting up, inside and outside.                  SSAFA the Armed Forces charity's Ambassador, Dame Vera Lynn, 103, will throw open a window at her home in East Sussex at 9pm precisely and sing 'We'll Meet Again' into the night air. We are encouraged to join her in a big group sing, BBC One will also be featuring the singalong at 9pm as part of their #VEDay75 broadcast. Hopefully we will be able to celebrate V.E Day on 11th Aug.

Bournemouth Branch REA   --  Memory Lane 2004

Colonel Jim Joiner has been awarded the REA Badge of Merit

May    The Annual Lunch was held at the East Anglia Hotel, £13 a head, including raffle.

June    A number of our members, Normandy Campaign Veterans, visited Normandy for the 60^th Anniversary of ‘D’ Day.

            Also members had an outing and a guided tour of Upton House and Park.

July     Members attended the SW Group barbeque at the SGT’s mess, 22 Engr Regt, Tidworth.

There is nothing new, earlier that year committee reported that 19 members had yet to pay their subs!!

Departed Friends      March             Dudley Cocksedge               May Roy Ashton

                                    December      Mike Pilkington    Arthur Read

We have only a handful of newsletters prior to 2001 so if anyone has any copies of the Newsletter pre 2001 Peter would like to copy them for our archive.

And finally an excerpt from Sapper Magazine from our newest member Ken Procter. Thanks Ken!

Forecast of National Events 2020.    Many of these, if not most, will not now take place

15 – 17 May Gibraltar Weekend – now cancelled

30 May Trooping the Colour - Major General’s Review

04 June Royal Hospital Chelsea Founder’s Day Parade

6 June Trooping the Colour – Colonel’s Review

10 & 11 June Beating Retreat, London

13 June Queen’s Birthday Parade

TBC Chilwell Weekend*

24 – 26 July Minley Weekend*

12 - 13 September Corps Memorial Weekend*

10 October REA AGM and Annual Dinner *

11 October Sapper Sunday at Royal Hospital Chelsea

05 November Field of Remembrance, Westminster Abbey

08 November Remembrance Sunday