NEWS & EVENTS LETTER
7th Armoured Division (Desert Rats) Thetford Forest Memorial Association
______________________________________________________________________
2007
As I sit here wondering where another year went, I am also thinking about the very good year we have had as an association. Although we started off the year on a sad note holding the memorial service for the members of the 7th Brigade who were killed in action in Basra, we went on to lay flowers at the memorial for every subsequent member of the brigade who fell. The open day was wonderful, very hot as I am sure many of you will remember, almost to hot to stand still for very long, it was to hot for our wonderful dancers to perform, and we all felt for the members of 1 R.T.R and the Army Cadets who passed out on parade, they were all fine afterwards. The association after expenses banked almost £1.000. So it was one of our best open days yet. Thank you all who dropped by the association tent to introduce yourselves, it is always nice to be able to put a face to a name.
The Orwell Park reunion was also very well attended, everyone who went said what another wonderful time they had, I unfortunately I missed this years reunion because of my holiday plans.
Approximately 100 people attended the Remembrance Day service, so we were really pleased to see them all. This service seams to be getting bigger each year.
Here are some important dates for you diary this year. (2007)
The next association meeting will be held at 10-00am on Tuesday 6th March, at the School Room, Forest Enterprise, H.Q. Santon Downham Brandon Suffolk.
The A.G.M. will be held at the same venue at l0-00am on Tuesday 24th April. Would all of you who wish to attend the A.G.M. please let me know before April 1st as we serve a light lunch afterwards and I will need approximate numbers for catering.
Open Day is on Sunday June 24th This is always held at the memorial site, as always we are looking for more stalls and displays to add to our ever growing contributors, so if you have or know of anyone who has anything of interest that would fit in with our theme please let myself or the Chairman know, we are always looking for something that would be of interest to the children that attend.
The Remembrance Service will be held at the Memorial at 2-00pm on Sunday 11th November 2007
Many of you are properly wondering why I have missed out the Orwell Park reunion. This is due to the news that Mr. Andrew Auster the headmaster at Orwell Park School is retiring at the end of this school year. We as an association cannot thank Mr. Auster, his staff and the children of this amazing school, who have hosted the most wonderful reunions, wined and dined and entertained us in the most spectacular way. We know you will all join us in wishing Mr. Auster and his family a wonderful retirement as we are going to miss his association with us very much. We will be discussing a retirement gift for him at the March 6 meeting. All suggestions for a suitable gift are welcome. We hope our association with Orwell Park School will continue, but we will have to wait until the new administration is in place, to let us know their plans.
Alas it also the time of year for the renewal of membership fees, members ship is still £5-00 and can be sent to myself or direct to the treasurer (address below). Anyone joining the association after October 2006 is not expected to renew until January 2008.
I also have information on a new book that will be of great interest to you, The Mirror of Monte Cavallara.
An Eighth Army Story by Ray Ward, The manuscript of this book was found after the death of Ray Ward by his son Robin who went on to edit it and have it published. The publishers very kindly sent me a copy and I can highly recommend that you buy a copy, the book is published by Birlinn and will be on sale
from the 11th January this year and will cost £10-99. Should you have any problems locating a copy please contact me and I will let you have the publisher's details.
We look forward to meeting up with you at one of this years meetings or events, and wish you all the very best of luck for the coming year
Pat Rabum Secretary.
Treasurer's address: Mrs. T. Scott. 8 Thurston Road, Beyton, Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk. IP30-9AE.
Thank you to all members attended the AGM on Tuesday April 24~, it is very nice to have time to have lunch and socialize with each other after the meeting. Something we have little time to do at the other meetings. At the AGM all association officials and Committee members were re-elected as standing. We did however miss a few familiar faces. Sadly Eric Davies (NVA) passed away earlier this year. And our good friend Alfie Zeike was in hospital, and unable to attend
Open Day Sunday June 24th is fast approaching, this year we are to have the honour of Mr. Terry Waite attending. We will be making a presentation to Mr. Andrew Auster retiring Headmaster of Orwell Park School, who has hosted the wonderful reunions at the school; the association will miss his friendship. We are hoping to see many of you there; I for one would like it to be a bit cooler than last year. We could still use some help set up on the 23rd if anyone has some spare time. As usual the association tent will be supplying teas and cakes for donations to the memorial funds, so any cakes would also be most welcome.
As promised the new website for the memorial is up and running and has had 1000s of hits already, it is a wonderful website, and the association cannot thank Ian Paterson enough for all his hard work, please give the whole site a visit any you will not be disappointed at the history Ian has amassed for us all to enjoy. Ian also wants to hear from anyone who is looking for old comrades; so if you are trying to trace someone let him know.
Pat Rabum Secretary.
The committee would like to thank everyone who helped us during the open-day, with special thanks going to Dennis and Betty Tierney for the never ending supply of tea and coffee, Michelle Davies and Arron Leonard for manning the food stall for the entire day. Mr. and Mrs. Ken Hughes for their time collecting entrance money, The Scott Family and The Raburn Family without whose help this day who not be the success it is. We thank everyone who baked cakes and supplied us with food for the stall. We shall let you know how much money we raised after our next meeting.
This October marks the 65th Anniversary of the Battle of EL Alamein therefore we will be holding a service at the memorial at 11-00am on Wednesday the 24th of October. This will be an invitation only event and all association members will be sent invitations in due course. Should you know of any Veterans of EL Alamein who are not members of the association and would like to be included please pass their names and address on to myself Secretary or Rod Scott so that we can arrange for them to be included. This is such an important day we do not want to leave anyone out.
Pat Raburn Tele 01842-827719 or Rod Scott Tele 01359-270490
There will be a catered Lunch served after the Service
Because of this Service we will now be holding the Next Association Meeting at 10-00am on Tuesday 7th August 2007, at the Forest Enterprise School Room, Santon Downham, Brandon, Suffolk. I am sorry this is such short notice to all who regularly attend these meeting, s but we have only just found out we are going to hold this Service, and as I am sure you will agree the time will go by fast.
Pat Raburn
Secretary
By now everyone will have had his or her letter from our Chairman Mr. Scott with regards to the 65th Anniversary Service for the Battle of El Alamein. As spaces for this are fast filling up you must reply to Mr. Scott as soon as possible for your invitation. Once Mr. Scott has received your acceptance, either by letter or phone you will be sent your entry ticket. And please remember that as this event is by invitation only, you must bring your entry ticket with you, otherwise you will not gain entry to the site. Also you must let Mr. Scott know how many people you will be bringing with you. I also need to remind you that we have been advised that Children cannot be included at this event. Teas and Coffee will be served upon arrival, with a luncheon served immediately after the service, which is why we need to know the exact number of people in your party as soon as possible.
Mr. Martin Johnstone is no longer the Forest Enterprise representative on the committee, the committee and association members would like to thank Martin for all his help, and invaluable guidance with the association, and we wish him well for the future. Mr. Ben Mattock will be the new rep for Forest Enterprise and we look forward to meeting him at our next meeting.
The next association meeting will be held at 10-00am on Tuesday 25th September 2007 at the Schoolroom, Forest Centre, Santon Downham, Brandon, Suffolk.
This will be the only meeting held before the October Service, if you cannot make the meeting and need any other information please do not hesitate to contact myself at 01842-827719 or Mr. Scott at 01359-270490.
Pat Raburn
Secretary