Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
As most of you will be aware Hardwicke & District RBL have been running a
"Shoe Box Appeal"
For soldiers of the 1st Battalion the Rifles who are deploying to Afghanistan this month.
The Appeal has been an enormous success and ended up being countywide.
Our grateful thanks go to the general public in and around Quedgeley, Hardwicke and the surrounding areas who donated items.
Our thanks also go to Tesco's and their Staff for having a collection point and giving their time to looking after the goods.
To date we have filled over 550 boxes and are looking forward to the Welfare Team from the 1st Rifles arriving to collect them.
At our last Branch Meeting we welcomed five new members.
A delegation from the Korean Veterans presented the Branch with a shield to recognise the friendship between us.
We also had a visitor from the Sea Cadets who are affiliated to our Branch.
Sadly over the last month we have lost three members.
The first at the end of July was Ron Williams who was well known around the area and a long standing member of the RBL.
Ron’s funeral was held in Wales but on August 8th friends and family gathered at Hardwicke Club for a Wake in Ron's memory.
The Branch Standard and Branch Members stood at the Memorial Stone whilst Rev Strickland officiated at a short service followed by the Last Post & Exhortation, then everyone adjourned to the bar to reminisce.
Our second member who died was Mary Vaughan the President of the Women's Section. Mary's funeral was held on 20th August at Hardwicke Church.
Both Mary and her husband were long term members of the Legion.
The most recent death was Mrs Mills whose funeral was held at Caincross on 4th September. Our sympathies go to all three families and friends.
On a very breezy June 27th Hardwicke & District RBL held their Annual
Veterans Day Parade of Standards
Twenty Standards of various Veteran Associations and other Legion Branches marched from Hardwicke Village Hall to the RBL HQ on Green Lane.
Over 50 Veterans were led by the band of the Gloucester Sea Cadets and brought up in the rear by our own Hardwicke Platoon of the Army Cadet Force.
After a service led by our Branch Chaplain Rev Andrew James and wreath laying we had a presentation from Hardwicke Branch to the Sea Cadets and Army Cadets.
There were shields for Best Cadet of the Year.
After that we retired to the Club for a buffet and BBQ and a good old chin-wag about old times.
Over 230 people attended and we made some new recruits to our membership and the Army Cadets also recruited a new member.
Thankfully the rain held off everyone enjoyed the evening; The Citizen did us proud with photos and a Slide show on their web site.
All in all a great success.
At our Branch meeting on July 9th we welcomed two members from the Vets Day and we look forward to seeing the others next month.
The Tuesday Club continues as usual and our July 29th meeting will be our 2nd Birthday, we look forward to seeing you.
Our next Branch meeting is August 13th at 7 30 pm.
Sadly we attended the funeral of Tony King who was a long time member of Hardwicke & District RBL, our sympathies go to the family.
July 19th saw the ABB Tribute Night, which was a huge success.
With 18 - 80 year olds dancing and singing to an excellent band.
The following week we held a Summer Fete with all the usual stands, the weather was hot and sunny and everyone seemed to be having a good time.
On Tuesday 29th the Tuesday Club held their second birthday party with 75 people in good voice singing Happy Birthday and the Citizen attended to take photos.
Also we held the launch of our "Shoe Box Appeal".
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