"BURY BRIEFINGS"

The Regimental Association Updates

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November 4, 2009
Gentlemen of the Association
Since my last letter to you all a fair amount of activities have taken place, notabiley the Fusilier Gathering, the opening of the Museum by H.R.H. The Duke of Kent and the unveiling of the refurbished Monument outside of the Museum by the Viscount Lord Ridley.The weekend was described by the Association Chairman Colonel James Aldous as an outstanding success.
It was a great team effort by all in Lancashire and the turn out on the Sunday morning was the highlight of the weekend for me, thank you all so much for supporting me. I have received some very nice letters of appreciation from lots of people and also from our friends across the pond. As I have always said and will continue to say: get there in numbers and you will prove the point:. My I, and I am sure your congratulations, go to Alan Noble and Ron Owen on their receipts of the Regimental Certificate and Medal for their outstanding contributions to the Association Lancashire. The Lorne Scots have now adopted our young bagpipe player Freddie and we hope to see more of him in the further.
The passing of John Scotson's son -in-law was very sad news to us all and with all of your good wishes I sincerely hope that they are now slowly getting over there bereavement.
Remembrance Sunday is our next big get together in Salford and I am looking forward to a good turnout from you all, you may recall that Salford, at one stage, was also known as the home of the Fusilier so lets do it proud.
Plans for the Gallipoli Dinner 2010 are now well advanced; all details will appear on the website shortly so I should get your names down quickly to save disappointment.
Plans for the Fusilier Gathering 2010 to be held in Warwickshire are also well advance, again the details and Hotel booking reference will all be published on the website also, it is planed to have a Beating of Retreat by the Minden Band before Dinner, something most of us have not seen for a long time, the cost will be the same as Lancashire, Dinner £25 per head and a double room will cost £70 per night. LOOK ON THE WEBSITE.
Gentlemen in closing may I once again say a very big thank you to you all for your continued support to me as your Chairman and to Lancashire and the Regiment.

John O' Grady
Chairman Fusiliers Association Lancs.

Gentleman
Like our excellent Web Site I am just about to complete my first year as your Chairman of the Fusiliers Association Lancashire. My sincere thanks as always goes to Dennis Laverick for the vast amount of free time he puts into making this site the best form of information that exists within the Regimental Association, I am also pleased to report that the funding for this project will be funded from the Association Funds.
Secondly my sincere thanks goes to Ron Owen and Steve Fitt for all of there hard work in putting into place an up to date, the data base of all of our members by branches, although a little way to go yet it is 100% better then it was a year ago. More and more members are getting involved in the use of computers and are finding there way through the Web Site and because the site is well controlled and monitored by our Webmaster the content is well balanced.
I have also had the pleasure of being invited to all of our Branches two of which I was made very welcome, the road show put together by Dennis went down very well, and thank you to Geoff Pycroft who stood in at very little notice to put on the show at Rochdale. I hope to have visited all of our branches by July of this year.
Again may I thank all of the members who's appearance at the M62 memorial service in February made it such a memorable occasion for the Families of the soldiers' killed in that horrendous incident. Alan Noble did an outstanding job in the collation of all of those families, I am positive they are very grateful to him as the Regiment are.

Responabilites.

On my visits to branches, one of the main questions I get asked is who is in charge of what with in the Regimental Headquarters in Bury.
I can only relay as to my period as Regimental Area Secretary ( Now Col Mike Glover) whereby all things Regimental were my responsibility. This included, all arrangements for the following,
1. The total organisation of Gallipoli Weekend.
2. The Minden Dinner North and South.
3. LF Reunion / Osnabruck Reunion.
4. The Museum and the everyday running of the Headquarters from command from Regimental Headquarters at the Tower of London.
The Association were included in all planning procedures and invited to help where possible however I am sure you will all agree that with a change of new management comes new ideas which are now in place.
The Area Secretary will now organize the church service on Gallipoli Sunday also the Lunch and the Association will take reasonability for the March passed parade.

The Association Chairman's Responsibilities.(My Present Position)

1. To ensure that the Association is run in compliance with the Association Constitution.
2. That all members are fully paid up members and placed in branches of their own choosing.
3. To ensure that the executive Committee and Branch Secretaries are fully manned at all times by fully paid up members.
4. That monthly meetings are held to discuss Association matters and all matters minuted as a record of those said meetings.
5. To organise the Gallipoli Dinner evening (see below as to why the decision to cancel this years dinner was taken).
6. To organise The Fusilier Gathering when it is the turn of Lancashire to do so.(Every four years.)
7. To ensure that the Web Site for the Association Lancashire is fully up to date and funded by the Association Lancashire.
8. Produce the Newsletter on time and with the help of the editor make it as interesting as possible to the reader.
9. To ensure that there is always a clear passage of information between the the Area Headquarters and the Association as to all things Regimental in Lancashire.

Referring to the cancellation of the Gallipoli Dinner this year, at the Executive meeting in December 08 I explained to the committee and the Branch secretaries meeting that followed that 2009 was going to be a very busy and costly year for our members also taking in to consideration the financial situation in the county was to try and save them some expense we should consider the possibilities of canceling one of our events, it was agreed around the table that the one function that should be cancelled was the Gallipoli Dinner evening for this year ONLY. And if I have upset members with this decision I apologise, but there are many of our members who did not finish there service with pensions as large as the more fortunate among us, and any indifferences regarding this decision should be directed to ME direct and not from behind a keyboard. 01457-868759 is my home number please feel free to talk to me at any time, there was nothing sinister other then to save members money. Some small minded people out there deemed fit to see it as a way of diminishing the Lancashire Fusiliers traditions, as a Trustee of the Lancashire Fusiliers Museum and its memorabilia you can rest assured that the LF'S tradition's will be the last thing to go whilst I am in that seat. The GALLIPOLI DINNER is already in the diary for next year and it will be held at the Town hall in Bury.

Membership of the Association
Gentlemen, problems arise at times through lack of information and this can occur because a lot of ex members of the Regiment in particular Lancashire Fusiliers are not registered members of a local Branch this is easily put right by getting in touch with me or the Association Secretary Steven Fitt and we can direct you to the correct Branch Secretary.
In closing my sincere thanks goes out to all of the Branch Secretaries for all of their hard work through out the years, our Treasurer Major Jennifer Hindshaw and everyone else who helps to keep the organisation in good health, please give me your backing over the next months and make all of the functions planned go successfully and show the other Areas just how well we do business in Lancashire.
John O'Grady
Chairman.

Gentlemen
Having just returned from the Annual General Meeting of the Regimental Association at the Tower of London, I felt it would be a good idea to up date you on what is happening this year and 2009.
You are all aware that the Fusiliers Gathering this year is being held in London and at present we in Lancashire are sending a group of approximately fifty members which includes the Ladies, may I also at this stage congratulate all of our members who took the time to attend the Veterans' Weekend in Blackpool apart from the bad weather, it is reported that all went very well and the Fusiliers were well represented on parade.
Gallipoli weekend in April of 2009 will be our next big venture, where I do expect to see a large number of you marching behind me and not stood in Public House doorways, not one of us has forgotten how to march, and it gives great pleasure to the people of Bury to see all of our Association members on parade, so PLEASE get the weekend 25th-26th April 2009 in your diaries NOW.
The other news that I have for you is that Lancashire has been chosen to host the Fusiliers Gathering in September 2009, the reason for this is to enable the Association members, from all of our Regimental Areas who have contributed to the Museum Fund and will not be able to get to the opening in April 09, to get to see it at the gathering weekend, a date has yet to be confirmed for this event.
General outline will be a dinner dance on the Saturday evening followed by a church service on the Sunday morning, March through Bury and lunch at the Town Hall, followed by a guided tour of the new museum by the museum staff.
I hope you have all had time to read the new term dates at you local collages in terms of learning a little about the I.T.world,
Dennis Laverick has done a lot of work on your behalf in this area and as I have said before it is the best and quickest way of communication for all of our members, so give it ago and do not be frightened of asking a question to any of our web site managers, it could save you a lot of money on phone calls.
http://www.fusiliers-association-lancs.co.uk
In closing, I look forward to seeing you all at the Regimental Club on Sunday 3rd August 08 to celebrate Minden Day.
Fondest regards to you all and your Families.

John O'Grady
Chairman

Dear Members of the Association (Lancashire)

I write to you all as your new Chairman and would like to say what a privilege it was to have been appointed to the post by our present Deputy County Colonel, Colonel Brian Gorski M.B.E. I would like to record my sincere thanks to Eric Davidson for all of his hard work whilst in the chair over the past three years or so.

My intentions are not to mend a wheel that is not broken but to take a careful look at our present situation and with the help of my committee set out a strategy programme that will take the Association through our present time and lay the foundation for the next fifteen years or so. My Committee will be tasked to raise the membership by 25%, to continue to track down and enlist the 1960's generation and increase the number of present R.R.F. members leaving the army, increase the I.T. awareness to all members' young or old by October this year, which in turn will help to play a very large part in the recruiting programme in Lancashire.

My committee will also be asked to look at and improve the payment of subscriptions with an aim of achieving an 85% payment by direct debit to allow forward planning in the further, such as The Fusilier Gatherings, Gallipoli weekends, Battle Field Tours, days out ect.

I am very impressed with what is going on in our outlying branches and the hard work that is being put in by the sectaries' and I look forward to meeting up with then all shortly to discuss my ideas and theirs, ensuring that we must never loose sight as to why the Regimental Association was implemented in the first place, it is where Past and Present members of our anti cadent Regiments and present Regiment can meet and discuss old times and be updated by our younger members as to how times have changed over the years in a warm and friendly atmosphere. This will, I am sure be borne out in the forth coming year in Lancashire with the opening of the new Regimental Museum in April 2009 (The biggest shot in the arm the XX The Lancashire Fusiliers will have had in the past fifty years or so,) plus the past forty years of our present Regiment, this museum will be a sight for sore eyes and will be a magnificent credit to all of those people who have contributed to its creation.

In all a very busy year ahead with many challenges for the Association in Lancashire which I am confident will be met with the true spirit of its members.

John O'Grady
Fusiliers Association Lancashire Chairman