Representing a Common Heritage
Representing a Common Heritage
This year’s Association Annual General Meeting and Reunion Dinner was held at Stafford on 4th and 5th June. The event was very well attended and included some 22 Servicing Commando and 58 TSW members and guests. Indeed, we were delighted to see so many, including 92 year old Percy Lackey of 3209 Servicing Commando who had travelled from New Zealand for the occasion! As usual, the weekend started with a ‘meet and greet’ at the Tillington Hall Hotel on the Friday evening. The AGM was held on the Saturday morning followed by a buffet lunch in the Sergeants’ Mess. The ‘free’ afternoon enabled members to join in at the Wing Families Day – always a popular event – which included an Association ‘drinks tent’ for members – and new members!
On Saturday evening, the Association Annual Dinner was held in the Sergeants’ Mess and, once again, proved to be a bit hit with those attending. The dinner was held slightly earlier this year to enable the bold – and the young at heart – to continue their celebrations late into the night at the Wing’s ‘Hangar Bash’.
Once again, we were very lucky with the weather on Saturday afternoon. The weekend format has proved to be very popular with more than one post-event message echoing the sentiment “…same again next year please”!
Members enjoy the Meet and Greet supper at the Tillington Hall
OC TSW, Wg Cdr Tim Etches and the Association Liaison Officer, Sqn Ldr Tom Stevenson, arrive for the AGM
The Likely Lads… or the lads most likely…?
L to R: ??, ??, Cliff Whiteley, Duncan Grant, Gary Priddle (with dog), Tony O’Shea, ??, ??, Paul Griffin, ??, Tim Newstead, ??, Graham Nokes, Ron Hodgson, Ian Jones, Bob McBey, ??
The Association “marquee”…
… with complimentary drinks for members!
Duncan Grant and Tim Newstead welcome Percy Lackey who had travelled from New Zealand for the Reunion
George Revell and Percy Lackey swap Servicing Commando war stories!
Duncan welcomes members to the Reunion Dinner in the Sergeants’ Mess
The menu!
Jim Coleman and Des Peters do some Raffle business with Alan McQuillin!
The main points arising from the AGM were as follows:
The Chairman welcomed members, especially those who had travelled from a distance from Aberdeen, Dundee, West Wales, Ireland and New Zealand.
The meeting paused for a moment of quiet reflection for those members who had passed away, for those unable to attend the reunion through illness or frailty and for the Wing personnel who were on active duty, particularly in Afghanistan..
The Chairman launched the publication of the TSW 40th Anniversary commemorative CD and DVD.
There were no matters arising from the 2009 AGM.
- Thanks were extended to Peter Berry for all his work on the history archive.
- Editing work on Jim Coleman’s history of TSW was continuing.
- Martin Williams was re-elected as Membership Secretary for the next 2 years and volunteers were sought to take over from Des Peters as Welfare and Publicity member in the following few months.
- SAC Scott Gasser was the winner of the 2009 President’s Award and a message of congratulations was sent to him from the AGM as the worthy winner of the award. He had deployed again to Afghanistan the day following the presentation of his award.
- OC TSW, Wing Commander Tim Etches and our new Liaison Officer, Squadron Leader Tom Stevenson, were introduced. The support given to the Association by the Wing continued to be outstanding, for which the Association is very grateful. Wing Commander Etches highlighted the activities and achievements of the Wing during the year; he particularly praised the high calibre of the men and women under his command. In addition, he sought pictures and memorabilia, particularly from the Servicing Commandos, to enhance the collection in the Mountbatten Room of the Officers’ Mess at Stafford.
- The Treasurer introduced the Accounts for the year ending 31st December 2009, which had been duly validated, and his report for the year was duly accepted by those present. The funds continued to be in a healthy state.
- Current paid up membership stood at approximately 215 members. Servicing Commando numbers had declined by 10% during the year while there had been a corresponding increase in TSW members. Nineteen new TSW members had joined the Association since June 2009, including at least two ex-non-cadre members and one who had served with TSF at RAF Gutersloh.
- It was suggested that the Association should have a page on Facebook – and it was agreed that this would be taken forward – now done!
- It was also agreed that a list of members – but without contact details – would be published with the next edition of the Newsletter.
- The meeting considered that the arrangements for 2011 should follow the successful proven format of this and previous years, provided that the Wing continued to be able to accommodate us. Suggestions for alternative venues/formats were always welcome from members for consideration.
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