“SANDBAG” WINCANTON AND DISTRICT ROYAL BRITISH LEGION NEWSLETTER Editor Tony Goddard 01963-824193

NEWS FROM THE BRANCH October Branch secretary Arthur Pickup 01963-32952 Volume 11 Issue 7 2014 Next branch meeting AGM 3rd November 7 p.m.

Next meeting is AGM

Please note that our next meeting being the AGM is not the third Monday of the month but is on 3rd November. Whilst most of the committee have agreed to continue for the forthcoming year we do have a vacancy for vice president - since Fenton Rutter passed away during this year. As I mentioned in a previous Sandbag I would like to propose at the AGM that our branch makes a donation to the Battle Back Our guests with the committee Centre jointly run by the RBL and Help for Heroes. Lt. Col. Brown is on Paddy’s right, I believe this will require branch approval and this will Maj. Adams top row far left and be sought at the AGM. Kerry Randall next to Rita.

Annual Dinner 2014 Poppy Appeal Coffee Morning 25th October

On 10th October sixty of our members and guests Poppy Appeal will be launched with a Coffee Morning attended the Annual Dinner at the Olive Bowl on 25th October at 10 p.m. in the Memorial Hall. Gillingham, the dinner and service was as good as Arthur is in the process of publishing the list of timings ever and those present complimented the Olive Bowl for Morrison’s Poppy Appeal collections, if you have on another splendid meal. Our guests of honour were not done it before and wish to be included on the Lt. Col. Lenny Brown RM Deputy Commander of collections please let Arthur know on 01963-32952. the Commando Helicopter Force (CHF) along with Kerry Randall Public Relations Officer for the CHF Old Faithful Memorial and Major Chris Adams RE who was also our guest speaker. Chris is Officer Commanding 57 Training I have been in contact with English Heritage and I am Squadron, 3 Royal School of Military Engineering pleased to tell you that they will be including the Old Regiment and he gave us a very enlightening Faithful Memorial on Bayford Hill in a national presentation of his career which spanned tours of register as a “listed memorial”. This will give the site duty in Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan. He is also a certain safeguards and will protect it for the future. specialist on bridge building and as OC 39 I also made them aware that I have a copy of a “Deed Armoured Engineer Squadron Royal Engineers of Declaration” signed in 1954 when the then owners Chris’s team built the longest single span equipment of “Highlands” upon whose wall the memorial is built bridge since World War Two. It is known as gave this legal declaration enabling the memorial to be Malvern Bridge and is in Helmand Province built and protecting its legal status in perpetuity. The Afghanistan. It is 67 meters long and set on concrete original of this deed is lodged with Messrs Rutter & abutments. He also saw duty in the Falkland Islands Rutter, solicitors. I have sent a copy of to English on engineering projects. We do hope Chris can be Heritage and to Wincanton Town Council to enable with us again. The raffle at the dinner raised £168. them to protect the status of the memorial.

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Branch member pays our respects at Hill 112 - Normandy

You will remember I am sure that I wrote an article about the epic battle at Hill 112 in Normandy at which the 43rd Wessex Division took very heavy casualties capturing the hill. I also highlighted the fact that the memorial on Castle Hill Mere is a replica of the memorial at Hill 112. Our member Brenden Adams and his wife Gill were in Normandy in late September and had asked if the branch wished them to lay a wreath at the Hill 112 memorial - obviously we did and I supplied Brenden with the wreath. Here is Brenden’s story of the trip. Tony “On the castle hill at Mere in Wiltshire there is a Our wreath at Hill 112 memorial to the 43rd Wessex Division. On the memorial it states that it is a replica of a memorial stone that stands on Hill 112 in Normandy. This hill is situated just a few miles south west of Caen. So I decided that I would travel from Castle hill to Hill 112 and take a wreath to the memorial. To that end Tony Goddard kindly arrange the wreath. I then mentioned my intension to my neighbour John Bastapole and it became a two car trip. Together with our wives we both drove our MGB`s to Normandy. Upon arrival at Hill 112, one thing is clear, it is not what you and I would call a hill. It is high, and does dominate the region for miles around but the top is flat. It is almost a plateau. From all sides except from the south the approach is gentle. The southern side dominates the Orne River valley. This was the objective. The Germans realised that whoever held this hill could hold Normandy. On 10th July 1944 the 43rd Wessex commanded by General Thomas was given the task of taking it. Two Battalions of 130 Brigade, the 5th and the 4th Dorsets attacked towards Eterville just north east of the hill. The actual hill was attacked by 4th and 5th Wilts along with 4th Somersets. followed up by 5th DCLI of 129 brigade. From then on the men of the 43rd Wessex Division were engaged in some of the most savage fighting of the second world war. I am not sure exactly how many of our Wessex men became casualties. However, to give you an idea, the 43rd suffered 2000 casualties in 36 hours from dawn of the 10th July. To visit this place was a moving experience. There is a small wood planted where a paddock had been. This now has a few personal tributes displaying flowers and messages in memory of individuals lost. A few of those who survived the war have had their ashes scattered there. There is also a field that once was an orchard. This was the front line and held with great courage and tenacity by the Duke of Cornwalls Light Infantry. It is known as Cornwall Wood. It was with great respect that my wife and friends laid the wreath on behalf of the Wincanton Branch of the Royal British Legion. I am pleased to tell you that there were at least half a dozen other wreaths there.” Brenden

We are always pleased when branch members suggest to lay wreaths and will always support future opportunities. Tony

Brenden & Gill Adams far left & right with friends Pauline & John Bastapole centre

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Remembrancetime - The Unknown Warrior

The idea of a Tomb of the Unknown Warrior was first conceived in 1916 by the Reverend David Railton, who, while serving as an army chaplain on the Western Front, had seen a grave marked by a rough cross, which bore the pencil-written legend 'An Unknown British Soldier'. He wrote to the Dean of Westminster in 1920 proposing that an unidentified British soldier from the battlefields in France be buried with due ceremony in Westminster Abbey "amongst the kings" to represent the many hundreds of thousands of Empire dead. The idea was strongly supported by the Dean and the then Prime Minister David Lloyd George. Arrangements were placed in the hands of Lord Curzon of Kedleston who prepared in committee the service and location. Suitable remains were exhumed from various battlefields and brought to the chapel at Saint-Pol- sur-Ternoise near Arras, France on the night of 7 November 1920. The remains were on stretchers each covered by Union Flags. Two officers present, Brig. L Wyatt and Lt. Col. E. Gell did not know from which battlefield any individual body had come. Brigadier Wyatt with closed eyes rested his hand on one of the bodies. The two officers placed the body in a plain coffin and sealed it. The other bodies were then taken away for reburial. It seems highly likely that the bodies were carefully selected and it is almost certain that the Unknown Warrior was a soldier serving in Britain's pre-war regular army and not a sailor, airman, or Empire Serviceman. The coffin stayed at the chapel overnight and on the afternoon of 8 November, it was transferred under guard, with troops lining the route, from Ste Pol to the medieval castle within the ancient citadel at Boulogne. For the occasion, the castle library was transformed into a chapelle ardente: a company from the French 8th Infantry Regiment, recently awarded the Légion d'Honneur en masse, stood vigil overnight. The following morning, two undertakers entered the castle library and placed the coffin into a casket of the oak timbers of trees from Hampton Court Palace. The casket was banded with iron, and a medieval crusader's sword chosen by The King personally from the Royal Collection was affixed to the top and surmounted by an iron shield bearing the inscription 'A British Warrior who fell in the Great War 1914–1918 for King and Country'. The casket was then placed onto a French military wagon, drawn by six black horses. At 10.30 am, all the church bells of Boulogne tolled; the massed trumpets of the French cavalry and the bugles of the French infantry played Aux Champs (the French "Last Post"). Then, the mile-long procession—led by one thousand local schoolchildren and escorted by a division of French troops—made its way down to the harbour. At the quayside, Marshal Foch saluted the casket before it was carried up the gangway of the destroyer, HMS Verdun, and piped aboard with an admiral's call. The Verdun slipped anchor just before noon and was joined by an escort of six battleships. As the flotilla carrying the casket closed on Dover Castle it received a 19-gun Field Marshal's salute. It was landed at Dover Western Docks on 10 November. The body of the Unknown Warrior was then carried to by rail to London. The train went to Victoria Station, where it arrived at platform 8 at 8.32 pm that evening and remained overnight. (A plaque at Victoria Station marks the site: every year on 10 November, a small Remembrance service, organised by The Western Front Associa- tion, takes place between platforms 8 and 9.) On the morning of 11 November 1920, the casket was placed onto a gun carriage of the Royal Horse Artillery and drawn by six horses through immense and silent crowds. As the cortege set off, a further Field Marshal's salute was fired in Hyde Park. The route followed was Hyde Park Corner The Mall, and to Whitehall where the Cenotaph, a "symbolic empty tomb", was unveiled by King-Emperor George V. The cortège was then followed by The King, the Royal Family and ministers of state to Westminster Abbey, where the casket was borne into the West Nave of the Abbey flanked by a guard of honour of one hundred recipients of the Victoria Cross. The guests of honour were a group of about one hundred women. They had been chosen because they had each lost their husband and all their sons in the war. "Every woman so bereft who applied for a place got it". The coffin was then interred in the far western end of the Nave, only a few feet from the entrance, in soil brought from each of the main battlefields, and covered with a silk pall. Servicemen from the armed forces stood guard as tens of thousands of mourners filed silently past. The ceremony appears to have served as a form of catharsis for collective mourning on a scale not previously known. The grave was then capped with a black Belgian marble stone (the only tombstone in the Abbey on which it is forbidden to walk) featuring an inscription, composed by Herbert Edward Ryle, Dean of Westminster, engraved with brass from melted down wartime ammunition.

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Excellent evening at the Unicorn, Bayford. Remembrance 2014

The Unicorn was full on 30th September when Although we always keep our Remembrance observance Sarah Lowery gave us a wonderful evening of to the same time and procedure each year I feel it is nostalgic wartime music. The first half covered important for me to just to confirm timings etc., so that songs of the Great War and then she continued there are no misunderstandings or confusion. with favourites from World War Two. Richard and Remembrance Sunday this year is 9th November and Jane Cummings were excellent hosts and again our church service starts at 3 p.m. Assembly for the provided members with a fantastic complimentary parade is 2.15 p.m. at the Memorial Hall and march off buffet. They held a raffle which raised £80 and is at 2.30 p.m. after the service there will be a short Sarah provided her performance free of charge. parade to the Council Offices when the salute is taken at We are most grateful to Richard and Jane and the church gates. Sarah for all their ongoing support. The Brownies, Guides and Scouts will place crosses for each of our War Dead at the War Memorial before we march off. We are hoping for regular soldiers, sailors and marines to be joining us this year and our affiliated cadet

groups will be in attendance, as will students from King Arthur’s School. At the branch Annual Dinner Lt. Col. Brown confirmed he will take the salute at the parade at the end of the church service and promised we will be having a Naval and Marine detachment from the

Commando Helicopter Force joining us. It also looks likely that 1 Regiment Army Air Corps will also be represented and attending the parade. On 11th November we will be at the War Memorial at the Memorial Hall for the National Two Minutes Silence

at 11 a.m. Assembly for this will be 10.45 a.m. and the Last Post will be played at 11 a.m. Afterwards we will all depart by cars to the Old Faithful Memorial on Bayford Hill where our chaplain the Rev. Nigel Feaver will lead us in an act of Thanksgiving and

Remembrance, the Last Post will also be played.

Sarah Lowery Cadets units.

I briefly mentioned in the last Sandbag that we will be officially affiliating with the Sea Cadets and Marine Christmas Lunch dates fixed Cadets of T.S. Mantle VC. We have had connections with them for some time now and formal affiliation has For several years now we have enjoyed Christmas now been agreed. This will take place at the December lunches at the Millers Arms. We always charge the branch meeting on 15th December in the Memorial Hall. meal at cost price and this year is the same. The I have arranged for a “Cadets Day” with the Commando cost will be £10 each which is still a good price for Helicopter Force at Yeovilton on 30th October at which what we get. all our cadet units were invited. Although the ATC could The dates are 17th and 18th December at 12 noon not attend due to training camp, both our Army Cadet for meal at 12.30 p.m. For those who wish we can unit and the Sea Cadets will take part in large number. arrange for the CAT bus to pick you up and the Steve Lee will be attending on our behalf and his son choice of date is yours. Please contact Arthur to Brecon will also be attending as our youth member. It is reserve a place and payment is required at that very encouraging that we can have all our cadets time. Closing date is 10th December. involved. There will be a full article on the day in next months Sandbag.

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