OUR meeting on Tuesday, February 10 started with the Homage and Silent Tribute during which we remembered with great sadness Charles Newton our Branch Patron who passed away at his home in Camelford, Cornwall in late January.

Charles had been a stalwart of the RBL for many years and was branch chairman at the time when the Callow End and Powick branches combined many years ago. He will be remembered with gratitude and our thoughts go out to Christine and the family at this sad time.

On a much happier note we had our New Year meal this year in January at The Three Nuns which was well supported and everyone agreed that we had a splendid meal accompanied by very attentive service, thanks to Dave and the team.

As we all know this year has many very important milestones to recognise and we hope to be able to mark some of them with special branch activities in the villages. It is the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo, the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Britain and the 70th anniversary of both VE and VJ.

As a start we are planning to hold a Cheese and Wine social evening in Callow End Village Hall on Wednesday, May 20 with the theme of Victory in Europe celebrations remembered. We are hoping for good support on this one with further details to follow. Later in the summer we are hoping to put on an indoor and outdoor event at The Old Bush with possibly a joint VE and VJ theme and further details will be announced in due course.

All these activities need the support of branch members and our community as a whole, and we will be hoping to find some new members along the way to boost our dwindling ranks.

Remember anyone can become a member of the Royal British Legion, old or young male or female and you do not have to be ex-service to be a member.

If you would like to get involved and join us contact John Mason on 01905 830805.

Our next branch meeting will be on Tuesday, March 10 at Madresfield Club starting at 8.15pm prompt, so why not come along and join us.

JOHN MASON