28 NAVY NEWS, APRIL 2009
We want
Standing up
Gannet’s
a National
battle
honours
Defence medal
for the Corps
AMONG the facts and fi gures
you gave for HMS Gannet
(February) you list Copenhagen
1807, Walcheren 1809 and
WHAT is happening to those men who once I gazed around this vast auditorium. There was not
Suakin 1888 as Battle Honours.
SUCCESSIVE governments My grandfather had seven wore the Globe and Laurel with pride?
one single person standing, despite the fact that prior
I have no doubt that these
have continually ignored medals, dad got two, my brother Why do they shun the Association and the
to opening I had seen many Royals wearing their
actions took place but they do
the loyal and steadfast serv- and I absolutely zero. comradeship that it brings and why, when the
blazers around the bars.
not qualify for Battle Honour
ice from many of our Armed Anyone looking at me on occasion demands it, do they deny that they
There was more shame to follow. It was the Grand
status.
Forces personnel. Armed Forces Day wouldn’t even were once members of the most famous corps
Finale and I was ready, a roll of drums and the
Whilst Naval Air Squadrons
The unofficial Veterans’ Badge is know I’d served our Queen and in the world?
most famous band in the world poured out the
operating out of Gannet from
barely visible and is no substitute country. When I attended the Mountbatten Festival
naval march followed by the one and only A Life
1943 to 1945 may well have
for a medal. Even if we purchased a blazer
of Music in February in the Albert Hall, as
on the Ocean Wave.
qualified for the Battle Honour
Many veterans believe that we and badge, they’d assume we’d
usual the band and the corps of drums were in
I was already on my feet. Once again I gazed
‘Atlantic’ I find it difficult to
should follow the Australian lead never made it out of barracks let
tremendous form.
around me, I was astounded, I was standing
believe that the honour was
with a National Defence medal. alone sweated blood in the jungle
The auditorium was full to its capacity.
alone, not one of the many hundreds of
granted to the air station.
Our award system is unfair, in Belize or frozen our knackers off
The Captain General and his entourage
blazer-clad Royals stirred from the comfort
There is no reference to
archaic and anachronistic, hence during North German winters.
filled the Royal boxes, adding to the
of their seats.
Gannet in Battle Honours of
diminishing military service. I think it is time our politicians
splendour of the occasion, and as always I
I felt no embarrassment, I did what I
the Royal Navy by Lt Cdr Ben
The British public should rally and civil servants stopped telling
endeavoured to play my part.
have always done, and always will.
Warlow.
round and support this laudable us how proud they are of us, and
In full evening dress, medals, corps
To add to my surprise, to my right sat
– Wilf Diggins, Larne, Co
campaign, since several Service show it by giving us all a National
bow tie, corps cufflinks, corps watch
a senior Royal Marine Officer who was
Antrim
personnel have nothing to show Defence Medal.
(all 90th birthday presents) and the
proud enough to attend in full mess kit
for years or even decades or – David M Kelley, Chatteris,
biggest gold crest I owned on the
and medals but not proud enough to
...YOU DO not mention the
service to our country. Cambridgeshire
waistband, I suppose that I looked
stand for his Corps.
fact that the Gannet now
Further information can be found
different from the norm.
I would say to him as many have said
being restored in Chatham
at www.nationaldefencemedal. ...THE WHITEHALL assertion
So what, for many years I have
to me: “You lead by example, sir.”
Dockyard was for many years
webs.com that the activities of ‘developing
never tired of telling all and sundry
I hope that all vets who attend
the accommodation ship for TS
– Charles Lovelace (Vice Commonwealth countries’ had no
that I was, and still am, a Royal
future events will read this and
Mercury on the Hamble and
Chairman, Veterans’ National infl uence on decisions reached by
Marine.
remember that ‘Once a Marine
perhaps if it had not been used as
Defence Medal Campaign) the UK is a direct insult and slap
On this Saturday in the Albert Hall this
always a Marine’ and stand for a few
such would not have survived.
Liphook, Hants in the face for every ANZAC and
feeling of pride was overcome by a feeling
moments, if only to say thank you to those
– Christopher Jepps
Canuck that has put out for the
of shame.
young men who are more than maintaining the
...THOSE OF us who served in Mother Country in every modern
I sat enthralled at an unusual (to me) Corps of
high standards that you set and who, even as I write,
Polar query
the 1970 and ’80s didn’t do it for confl ict, save the Falklands War.
Drums, followed by the whole band, filled every
are showing the world that they are not only the elite,
corner of the vast hall with the Commando March
they are the best. CAN any readers help with my
medals or even the money As an Australian citizen, I
Sarie Marais.
– Bernard Hallas, former Cpl RM, Haxby, York queries about the polar trophy
The last medals awarded to take great umbrage at this insult.
shown in March (page 37)?
anyone in my family were to my Developing countries indeed!
father and grandfather. I am sure that none of us deem
My brother served from 1966 ourselves as lesser men than all
Ark’s home for the aged
Does anyone know exactly who
Trophy No 26382 was made by,
and when? And exactly who it was
to 1980 in the Royal Navy and I of those veterans from other
presented to, and when?
from 1977 to 1981 in the RAF lands who have been shown some
WILL there be a further cutaway markings address 4VO (four very the changes that happen during
I suspect that the representation
Regiment, so my family has served appreciation by those that govern
of Ark in her fi nal confi guration? old) and was located about where the next 30 years or so are not
of four skiers is much more likely
this country for the best part of a in their lands.
Comparing the cutaway with the Officers’ Cabins 114, 132 and reflected.
to be because it was the standard
century. I am fed up with being treated
what I remember of her, there were 133 are shown in the diagrams. This is why readers often
and preferred number per sledge
If we’d been in the US forces as though my time in uniform was
some quite significant changes to Maybe there are a few more remember differences from their
and tent of all the support teams
you’d need to have an extension of no account whatsoever.
accommodation. ‘Arks’ who can add comments time onboard, and why it would
on the outward journey, rather
to house all the medals, and that’s To all those who feel that this If memory serves me well, on this? be impossible to show the ship in than depicting the absence of PO
just the ones they get for opening idea of a National Defence medal there were two or three Chiefs’ – J W ‘George’ Sexton, all her various configurations. Evans on the return. Why not the
the cereal box, let alone those for is a valid and worthy one, I urge Messes on four deck back aft; the Walton-le-Dale, Preston So no more cutaways of Ark, absence of Oates as well?
each time they landed in a foreign you to make your feelings known. one I lived in was known as ‘the Cutaways are usually based on but we are hoping to run cutaways – Noah Scott,
country. – Gerry Peck, Australia geriatric ward’ from its location the original plans of the ship, so of other ships later this year – Ed noahscott@hotmail.co.uk
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