August 2018 LAPSED MEMBERS - 289

Transcription

1 Overseas Area Newsletter August 2018 LAPSED MEMBERS Overseas Area administrative support Inside this issue: Overseas Area administrative support 1 European Area Autumn Conference Johannesburg branch Nijmegan Marches A big welcome to the area to Carol Titterington who as from the 1 August was appointed as the Regional Support Officer for Overseas and Northern Ireland. Carol will be supporting the Overseas Area with its administration and offering support to our branches. Carol lives in Belfast and is married to Brian with one grown up son and a six year old granddaughter. Carol enjoys travelling and spending time with her family. Carol started working for RAFA on 26 May 1992 and has always had an interest in the ex service community and their charity and welfare work. Carol saw the job advert in the Belfast Newsletter, applied for the job and has been working in the Belfast RAFA office ever since never looking back and now has many good friends made through work with the Association During the 26 years Carol has learnt a lot about the RAF and the RAF Association and has also seen a lot of changes with the Association evolving to meet new challenges and objectives. Carol sincerely hopes to be an asset to the Overseas and European Area and is delighted to have been given this opportunity to learn more and make new friends with the Area.

2 European Area Autumn Conference Brussels The European Area Autumn Conference will take place over the weekend of 2 to 4 November 2018 at the Bedford Hotel in Brussels. The weekend will include a meet and greet on the Friday evening followed by a buffet dinner. After the Conference on the Saturday morning there will be the opportunity to visit sights in the local area, the day will finish with a gala dinner in the evening. To round off the weekend s activities, on the Sunday there will be a service of remembrance in the RAF Chapel in Brussels Basilica. For further information and an application form to attend the weekend please contact the Area Director at: sarah.waugh@rafa.org.uk or Carol Titterington at: carol.titterington@rafa.org.uk Please note that the deadline for booking a place for the European Area Autumn Conference is 20 August Please can I encourage branches to consider hosting the 2019 Autumn Conference? The Autumn Conference is important to the Area business wise as this is where any Resolutions that branches want to go forward to Annual Conference in the following spring would be considered and voted on. If any branch would like any assistance with a proposal please do not hesitate to contact the area office. Brussels is very easy to get to with direct flights from 200 European & international locations; most European cities are within a 2-hour flight and the main airport was only 20 minutes from the city centre. For those travelling by rail, there are excellent services provided by TGV, Eurostar, Thalys and ICE. For those travelling by road from the UK, the Cross- Channel Ferry or Channel Tunnel also operated an extensive service. Every part of the city is easily accessible by public transport. There are 4 metro lines, 17 tram lines, 50 bus lines (10 Journeys for 14 Euros), lots of taxis (including UBER) and for the more adventurous there are bikes for rent (called Villos). The city of Brussels has deep historic ties and close Military links with the UK from Waterloo to Ypres and Zeebrugge to Afghanistan. The city also has many points of interest including the Menin Gate and the RAF Chapel in the Basilica Koekelberg

3 Johannesburg Branch Armed Forces day at the home of the British High Commissioner Johannesburg Branch members were very honoured to be invited to the home of the British High Commissioner to celebrate Armed Forces day. Everyone had a wonderful day with great food, entertainment and good friends. Speech by the military attaché Good afternoon, ambassadors, senior officers from the South African National Defence Force (SANDF), fellow attaches, British and south African veterans and our friends. I d like to add my welcome to that of Ben Llewellyn Jones our deputy high commissioner. First of all, I have to thank our High Commissioner Mr. Nigel Casey for letting a group of military people have a party in his fantastic house and gardens. I m sure he knew what he was doing when he agreed to this but you will note that we re not running this event in my garden but as I only count a handful of marines in the audience we should be ok! I would also like to thank our friends and sponsors from BMW, Mabey Bridge, Babcock and Thales. BMW have laid on a fleet of vehicles to return you to your cars if you found yourself parking on the outskirts of Johannesburg in order to find a parking space! Special thanks also to our friends from the South African Air Force entertainment band who have played with their customary poise and professionalism throughout the afternoon. Celebrating armed forces day in the United Kingdom is a relatively new phenomenon. The first one was held in the UK in 2006, reflecting the fact that our armed forces were engaged in simultaneous operations in both Iraq and Afghanistan with the very obvious human costs involved in that tempo of operations. It was an event established so that our citizens could publicly thank and recognise their armed forces and has been going strong ever since. This we believe is the first such event that we have held in South Africa. Speaking of Africa, I would like to highlight our contribution to peace, stability and security on the continent; in South Sudan we are providing much needed infrastructure support through our military engineers and our medics from all three services are supporting the military field hospital which supports the UN mission. In addition, we have a large number of staff officers deployed in Somalia and have a large number of female officers attached to various UN missions as gender advisers to help with the ongoing issues related to the prevention of sexual violence in conflict. We have also been closely involved in countering the effects of Ebola in various countries and, for the first time in our history, have placed UK military forces under the command of our department for international development who have the lead for the multi-agency approach to this pervasive problem. Finally, we have military training and advisory teams based throughout the continent engaged in helping African nations develop and refine their peacekeeping capabilities. Closer to home, we enjoy a close relationship with the South African National Defence force, this reflects our shared history and common values. Indeed, the UK military were invited by your first democratically elected government to deploy an advisory and assistance team here to assist with the transition of the South African Defence Force and various liberation movements into the SANDF that we recognise today. They left the country last year, a glowing reflection of SANDF's confidence and development. Day to day, we now provide mostly technical and specialist assistance to SANDF capability development, notably with the South African navy, air force and other niche areas. Turning back to today, as well as celebrating our armed forces, we have a special emphasis on the royal air force who are celebrating their 100th anniversary this year. The 1st of April 1918 this saw the amalgamation of the royal flying corps and the royal naval air service into the world s first independent air force. Over the last 100 years we have seen the RAF ruthlessly ensure that every major air base is located next to some of the world s finest golf courses and swimming pools. I am of course joking, mostly as a Royal Marines infantry officer I can only sympathise with how hard life can be at feet.

4 Johannesburg Branch continued... But before Kevin, my RAF deputy disowns me, I have to say that I have relied upon the RAF's skill and expertise many times whilst deployed on operations. The RAF are today deployed globally supporting many military tasks and have been at the forefront of our anti-daesh campaign in partnership with many of the nations represented here today. The RAF are also inextricably bound into our history and national psyche since the events that inspired Winston Churchill to declare that never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few. This year provides our nation the opportunity to thank the men and women of the royal air force for their sacrifices both past and present and future. As we are talking sacrifice, my final 'thank yous' are to my team for their hard work in making today a tremendous success. Kevin, Mauricio, Linda and Helen. Now, it is no secret in our high commission that Helen and Linda take on a tremendous amount of responsibility on behalf of not just my team but the whole High Commission. They have taken my rather vague guidance and transformed it into the spectacle that we have enjoyed so far. Nijmegan Marches The Four Days Nijmegan Marches are a walking achievement event for four consecutive days, in which annually tens of thousands walkers are participating. On those days, people from all over the world come to Nijmegen to walk in and around the city and its beautiful wooded surroundings. Thousands of spectators are cheering on the walkers along the route every day. After four days of walking, a glorious entry along the Via Gladiola awaits the walkers, followed by the distribution of their well-deserved Four Days Medal. Around 500 air cadets and adult volunteers completed months of training to take part in this years 102nd Nijmegan Marches. The event has taken place since 1909 and has been based in Nijmegan since 1916 and is now the worlds largest walking event. Around 45,000 walkers took part in this years endurance event with approximately two million spectators supporting and cheering them on. The teams faced gruelling temperatures along with early starts while marching 40km a day in the searing sunshine. Well done to al those who took part and completed the event.

5 Registered Charity No (England and Wales), SC (Scotland) AREA EMPLOYEE CONTACT DETAILS Overseas Area Director Sarah Waugh 21 Talbot Street Belfast Follow us on: HELP US TO STAY IN TOUCH WITH YOU By far, the quickest and easiest way for us to get in contact with our members is through . This method of communication also saves money on postage money that we can instead spend on providing welfare support to members of the RAF family. Please update us on your current address by sending a quick note using the details on the right. BT1 2LD Northern Ireland (m) (w) sarah.waugh@rafa.org.uk Overseas Area Support Officer Carol Titterington (w) carol.titterington@rafa.org.uk Area Welfare Manager Marie Crombie marie.crombie@rafa.org.uk Deputy Area Welfare Manager Branch notices WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU Let us know what your branch is up to, so that it can be included in next month s newsletter. You can contact us by calling the office, or you can your updates and photographs to: sarah.waugh@rafa.org.uk Anna Lawton anna.lawton@rafa.org.uk 20 Queen Street Edinburgh EH2 1JX Scotland (m) (w) Diary Dates 2 to 4 November 2018 European Area Autumn Conference, Brussels