Havant Remembrance Day Nov 11th

Today’s Remembrance Day parade took place in glorious sunshine.

Meeting at the Royal British Legion in Brockhampton Road, I was asked, along with the Legion President, last year’s Mayor, Councillor Ken Smith, to lay a wreath at the HMS Havant memorial.

We then processed, in a parade led by the band of TS Active and comprising members of the armed forces, cadets, Scouts and St. John Ambulance Brigade, to the War Memorial at St.Faith’s Church, where a short service was held before the 2 minutes silence and then the laying of wreaths, all of which took place in front of a very large number of people.

The Wreaths

A small part of the crowd

The service then continued inside the packed Church where I followed Lt Cann from 47 Regiment, RA, and gave the 2nd Reading.

Reverend Cannon Peter Jones then gave a very moving Sermon, made all the more so by the recent death of  Royal Marine Corporal David O’Connor.

Following the service the parade reformed before, together with Rear Admiral David Bawtree, CB DL, I was given the honour of taking the salute at the march-past.

We were then invited back to the Royal British Legion Headquarters for a beautifully prepared buffet.

HISC Nov 10th

With Team GB members and HISC officers

Elaine & I were invited to represent the Borough when the Hayling Island Sailing Club held a Gala Dinner in order to celebrate the successes of the Team GB Olympic and Paralympic sailing team.

With Helena Lucas

The teams won 1 Gold medal and 4 Silver medals at the Games, and we were fortunate to have the Gold medal winner, Paralympian Helena Lucas, at our table.

In all 9 members of the two teams were able to attend the dinner, together with Stephen Park, OBE, the Olympic sailing team manager.

Towards the end of the evening, Stephen gave a very interesting illustrated talk, which he punctuated by asking various members of the teams to come up and speak of their experiences. The talk finished with a short video of some of the events.