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| Background
of the Association
In the summer of 1995, following the publication of plans by the Royal British Legion (Hereford
North) Branch to include an "Eyes Left" to local councillors during the Remembrance Parade, I wrote to the local newspapers expressing my disgust at
this proposal and asking for the idea to be dropped. My letter sparked off months of letters from others in Hereford and several articles appeared in both
the Hereford Times and Journal which, eventually, forced the RBL to reconsider and the "Eyes Left" was excluded from the parade.
The following is a list of my proposals (of which, I am happy to say, most were finally adopted):
All these points I discussed with Dave and we agreed that we should arrange a feasibility meeting with a few ex-Service people that we knew and, as a consequence, on 6 September 1995 we met with Bob Preece, Harry Davies and Mike Lawrence at the Hereford Welsh Club and talked over what we wanted to do. A second meeting was organised for 20 September and myself, Dave, Bob Preece, Tom Winters, Mike Lawrence and Ken Preedy talked over the idea and decided to go ahead with our plans. At this meeting we also decided to adopt 15 September as H.E.S.A. Day as this was the date in 1945 when all hostilities finally ended. As the first meeting would need a Committee to organise and run the Association until a formal election could be carried out the following appointments were agreed upon:
A preparatory meeting was arranged for 6 October when Dave, Tom and I discussed Tom's opening speech, the format of the meeting and the Banking arrangements. A final meeting on 11 October with Dave, Tom, Harry Davies, Mike Lawrence and I to was held to ensure that everything would run well at the inaugural meeting. At 2000 hours on 12 October 1995, with 57 people in attendance the wheels started to slowly move and by 2120 hours the Hereford Ex-Services Association was rolling steadily along with most of my original recommendations forming the basis for its structure. It was decided that OAP's would only pay £5 to join and that membership would be open to TA personnel who had completed one years service and attended an Annual Camp. A steering committee was accepted by those present which included those appointments agreed earlier plus Mike Lawrence, Fred Riches, John Evans, Bob Grocutt, Ted Caine, Vic Gall and Mal Watkin. A registration night was organised for 19 October and that was that. After the meeting the adrenaline was pumping for all the organisers, quelled with a few pints afterwards, but little did we realise that the hard work was yet to come. To enable members to join, an application form had to be produced. Luckily, I have been a computer user for some time, so I just designed a simple form which would include personal and service details of applicants. We would be receiving money as payment and needed to bank this, so Dave rushed round and opened an account with Barclays even though we hadn't got members, signatories or even any idea of how many would actually join. As it was, 46 people paid to join the Association on 19 October and we felt that we had finally arrived. Since that day the Association has met every month, attended Remembrance Parades, held Social events, carried out visits to clubs and ships. I produce a monthly newsletter with snippets of information for members. We have a President, a Chaplain, Welfare Caseworkers, a professional approach to our responsibilities and, above all, we enjoy what we do. There is a lot of hard work, especially in the background, keeping on top of everything but the end result is well worth the effort. |