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BasingstokeBranch (406)

Recent Branch activities

Visits and functions

Band of HM Royal Marines Thisexcellent band played at the Anvil onSunday 31st January. A group of 16from the Branch attended. The highlightof this band is the amazinglycomplicated drill where the drummersmanipulate their drum sticks betweenthe drum and under their nose inharmony - quite bizarre, but fascinatingto watch.

S E & Eastern Area Conference Sixof our members attended the AreaConference at Bracklesham Bay from1st to 3rd April and our Standard wasparaded at the memorial service onSunday by Pip. Bob was re-elected asVice President of the Area.

Region Spring Social On Thursday14th April 13 members fromBasingstoke Branch supported theHampshire Region Spring Social at theWorthies Sports & Social Club nearWinchester. It was the usual format andlunch was fish (or sausage) and chips.Eight branches from the Region wererepresented with 68 members in total.

Annual Dinner Our annual dinner washeld at the Red Lion on Friday 22ndApril. There were 53 present of which37 were Branch members and theremainder were from visiting Branchesor other associations. It was by generalconsent a very successful andenjoyable evening and the food andservice were of a high standard. TheLoyal Toast was proposed by Flt LtSimon Arnett of RAF Odiham and aBranch Member, the welcome wasgiven by our President Bryan Jenkinsand the reply on behalf of the guestswas given by Barry Furness, Chairmanof Area Council and the FarehamBranch. We thank the staff of the RedLion Hotel for looking after us so wellonce again.

Newsletter June 2016

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One of the stills in use called Mary

Annual Conference Six membersattended the Annual Conference atBlackpool and our Standard wasparaded at the memorial service onSunday by Pip.

A full report is on page 8.

Visit to the Bombay Gin DistilleryOn Tues 24th May, 14 BranchMembers and their guests with 3Members of the Bramley Branch of theRoyal British Legion made their way toLaverstoke near Overton. We hadbooked an escorted tour of the wellknown distillery starting at 10 am. Ourguide, Nick, started by telling us aboutthe history of the site. In 1719, havingacquired the lease for Laverstoke Mill,printer Henry Portal expanded the siteenabling him to begin manufacturingbank notes for the British Empire in1724. In the mid-18th centuryLaverstoke Mill saw increasingprosperity; manufacturing bank notesduring Queen Victoria's long reign.The site was expanded by the Portalfamily in 1842, and again in 1881,introducing further elegant architecture

to allow for increased production. Inparallel, a boom in the popularity of theGin & Tonic throughout the BritishEmpire meant that gin was enjoyedthroughout Queen Victoria's reign (ginwas used to sweeten the taste of theanti-malarial quinine that had to betaken daily as gin and tonic).Bombay Sapphire's heritage begins in1761 when distiller Thomas Dakinpurchased a site in Warrington,England, with the intention of distillinggin. In 1831, the Dakin familypurchased a still, and adapted it toseparate the exotic botanicals from theneutral grain spirit, capturing theflavours of the botanicals in the vapour- an artisanal distillation process nowknown as Vapour Infusion, and stillfaithfully used by Bombay Sapphiretoday. In 2010 Bombay SpiritsCompany purchased Laverstoke Mill.

Recent events continued

Standard Bearers at Sunday Service

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In 2014 The Bombay SapphireDistillery opened its doors to thepublic. We were all surprised to learnthat Bombay Sapphire is owned byBaccardi.Pictures of the group and of thefantastic hot houses where samplesof the botanicals (aromatic flavouringherbs) are grown can be seen in thecentre pages. It turned out to be amost interesting and enjoyable visit.

Age ConcernAge Concern’s Hampshire web site forBasingstoke services is:http://www.ageconcernhampshire.org.uk/our-services/basingstoke-wellbeing.html and is well worth alook. Age Concern Hampshire hasseven activity centres for older peoplein various parts of the Basingstoke &Deane area which are great places tomeet new people, take part in weeklyactivities such as quizzes, bingo, chairexercises, New Age Kurling and otheractivities or simply just to share a cupof tea with friends and chat.

Age Concern Hampshire’s CommunityCafé is open every Wednesday from10.30am to 1pm at Church Cottagebehind St Michael’s Church inBasingstoke. Last food order is12.30pm. (The church is opposite theslope beside Marks & Spencer).Please note that there is no parkingon the site but plenty available nearby.For more information on all the abovecall 01256 423874, or email toinfo@ageconcernhampshire.org.uk

New Members For some timemembership information held by HQhas not been passed down to BranchMembership Secretaries because ofproblems with the new IT system andthe need to update and conform toData Protection regulations. However,recently the master membershipdetails were made available to Chrisand she has done a terrific job toreconcile our local list with the HQ list.The following 14 people have beenadded to our Branch Membership listsince February 2015:

Mr David Bambury, Mr Daniel Baxter,Mr Joseph Cooper, Mr Chris Horwood,Mr Alexander Hughes, Mr StephenReid, Mr Matthew Shaw, Mrs JoyShields, Mr Fraser Tweedie, MrGeorge Woolford, Gregg Williams FltLt Rob Phillips, Sgt Ken Husband,Cadet FS Amy Husband 443 SqnATC.

We welcome them all.

Interesting Snippets fromrecent meetings

February meeting - 1. Pipannounced that owing to increasedwork commitments, Mick Blake hadresigned from his position asChairman of the Civilian Committee of443 ATC Sqn. Pip introduced KenHusband who is a Sgt on the staff of443 Sqn ATC who, together with Flt LtRob Phillips, will represent theSquadron at future RAFA meetings.

March meeting (AGM) - 1. Elections- The President said that the posts ofPresident, Chairman, Secretary,

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Treasurer and Auditor were up forre-election. All current holders of theseposts were willing to stand for anotheryear. The vote was taken ‘en-bloc’ andwas proposed by Alan, seconded byBob and carried.

There was one nomination for thevacant post of Vice-Chairman, LynnDuffy. Lynn was proposed by JeanCase, seconded by Brendan andcarried that Lynn be elected.

April meeting - 1. Pip welcomed anew RAFALO, Paul Davies. 2. Pipthanked those who had attended theskittles evening with our guests fromRAF Odiham. It was a most enjoyableand successful evening. The rafflemade £101 and the sales ofAnniversary pens made £18. 3. SgtKen Husband gave the report. At theATC Wing Presentation Evening SgtKen Husband, Cadet FS AmyHusband and Cadet Sgt SamuelThompson had all received WingCommander’s Commendations. Ex-Cadet WO Stephan Dunkley receiveda Commandant’s Commendation forhis outstanding service to the Corps.4. Cadet FS Amy Husband has passedher Air Space Instructors Course andis now qualified to teach the Cadets.This is a 7 month course at BoscombeDown.

May meeting - 1. Bob, who is theBranch Delegate, ran through therelevant Resolutions for the RAFAAnnual Conference and asked themembers for guidance on voting foreach one. 2. Lynn said that she and

Brendan had applied to collect forWings Appeal at the Railway Stationagain. This year it will be 29th & 30thSeptember.

Mayor’s AwardOur Chairman, Pip, has been awardedthe Mayor’s Award medal by theoutgoing Mayor of Basingstoke, CllrAnne Court. The outgoing Mayor canmake the award to up to three peoplewho he or she feels have made acontribution to life in Basingstoke. The

award is a badge supplied by Thomas Fattorini of Birmingham and can be

worn on a ribbon at Civic occasions.Many congratulations Pip.

South East & Eastern Area -May Newsletter

1. Air Cadet Organisation 75th

Anniversary. To mark this specialoccasion, a UK-wide torch relay hasbeen organized that will engage Sqn

Pip receiving his award from the Mayor

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cadets from all 4 corners of the country.The Association is helping to sponsorthe relay. Branches are also invited tosupport the relay as it passes throughtheir area. 2. RAF CentenaryCelebrations - RAF100. On 1st April2018 the RAF will mark the centenaryof its formation as the world’s firstindependent air force. The RAFprogramme of events will start inOctober 2017 and end in September2018 and a number of flagship eventswill take place across the UK betweenMarch and September 2018 includinga service in Westminster Abbey and aparade along the Mall, followed by aRoyal Salute and flypast. The 4 mainRAF charities (RAFA, RAFBF, RAFCharitable Trust Enterprises and theRAF Museum) have taken theunprecedented step of creating a jointventure charitable company, the RAF100 Appeal Ltd. Its purpose is to delivera coherent and collaborative campaignrealising both income and profile.More information about RAF100 can befound at: www.raf.mod.uk/raf100

ObituariesIt is with great sadness that we have toreport the deaths of Bob Fowle. LauraCruickshank and Joan Rackstraw. Bobwas known to many people in the areaand so many of them wanted to paytheir last respects to him that there weremore people outside of theCrematorium Chapel than could get in.

Branch Standard ParadedSince the last Newsletter the BranchStandard has been paraded by Pip at

the Area Conference, the AnnualConference and at 3 funerals.

Birthdays & AnniversariesOur congratulations go to the followingon their birthdays since the last NewsLetter: Sue Smith’s birthday was inFebruary, Bob Shepherd was 79 inMarch, Charles Lewis in March,Margaret Waissen in April, John Drewwas 89 in April, Bob Ingram was 84 inMay, Marilyn Lewis in May and VikkiDrew in June.

We do not keep formal records of members’ dates of birthand so we apologise if we have missed anyone.

Future Events

Armed Forces Day The Mayor ofBasingstoke and Deane BoroughCouncil Cllr Jane Frankum will beholding the eighth Armed Forces DayFlag Raising ceremony at the CivicOffices on Monday 20 June at10.30am.

Local veterans from all the services areinvited to attend this event organised inpartnership with the Royal BritishLegion and the public and currentservicemen of all ages are welcome tojoin them.

The ceremony will include the raisingof the Armed Forces Day flag.

Region Garden Party The annualHampshire Region Garden Party willtake place on Sat 9th July from 12noon at The Worthies Sports and SocialClub near Winchester. The format is

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Pictures of recent visits and events

The group enjoying their gin cocktails before heading home

The group admiring the unique botanical glass houses

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Pictures of recent visits and events

Above - scenes from our Annual Dinner

View of the botanical glasshouses and the ultra clear River

Test with swan

Standards marching on at theAnnual Conference

Left - Pip and Ileneposing for RevArthur Botham, ourChaplain, at ourAnnual Dinner

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take your contributions to lunch anddessert, take your own table and chair,raffle contributions welcome. TheTheme is Red, White and Blue -interpret that as you wish.

Branch BBQ Our annual Branchbarbecue will take place on Saturday16th July at noon. Vikki and John haveonce again thrown open their wellmanicured garden for this event - verymany thanks to Vikki and John. Pleasegive your name to Pip so that the rightnumber of burgers can be ordered,there is no charge.

Families Day at RAF Odiham Wehave been invited to join everyone atRAF Odiham on Thursday 21st July.Places may be limited so get yournames and car details to Pip as soonas possible. We are looking forward tothe Chinook aerobatic display whichlast year was awesome!

Canal Trip We are reintroducing thecanal trip on the Basingstoke Canalon Saturday 30th July. The barge willdepart Odiham Quay at 2.30pm. Thereis a charge to cover the hire of thebarge and hot fish and chips. Namesto Pip if you want to join in.

Summer Ball Our Summer Ball thisyear will be on Friday 12th August andwill be in the Red Lion Hotel as usual.The event starts at 7 pm for 7.30. Moredetails later.

Lynn is organising trips to the SolentAviation Museum in Southampton

and to Brookwood Cemetery. Detailsto follow.

Vulcan/Canberra newsXH 558 has come to the end of herflying life, but the team will now restoreCanberra WK163 to flight. Moredetails later, or go to:www.canberratothesky.org

Report on Annual ConferenceBy Bob Shepherd

The RAFA Annual Conference washeld at Blackpool from 13th to 15th May2016. This year 6 members of ourbranch attended; I went as yourdelegate, Pip as the branch standardbearer, Bryan, Gina, Ilene and Lynn asvisitors. 2016 was a major change fromthe recent years at Blackpool as thecomplete indoor part of the conferencewas held in the Hilton Hotel instead ofthe Winter Gardens. This venueproved to be quite satisfactory with theconference being held in one of largeconference rooms with all of thevarious RAFA stalls such asRAFATRAD, RAFA Marketing,Volunteering, RAFA youth, WingsAppeal and Wings Breaks and severalothers situated just outside the Suite.

This year the RAF Band for theconference weekend was the RAFCollege Band and they provided thesupporting music for the openingceremony of the parade of the AreaStandards and the delivery of theRAFA National Standard to the stagewhere it remained for the duration ofthe conference. Following the opening

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prayers delivered by the Chaplin inChief, the RAFA President, AirMarshal Sir Dusty Miller, invited theWorshipful Mayor of Blackpool to givehis welcoming address.

The President then invited theSecretary General, Nick Bunting, togive his Report. Once again it was animpressive presentation on RAFAactivities during 2015 and outlined theplan for the future of the Association.He said that as a “Membership-ledAssociation” it was essential toconcentrate on increasing themembership. He pointed out that in2001 the membership was over100,000 and by 2013 it had reducedto 61,030. This was due lossesthrough deaths and also throughmembers lapsing at a rate of 4 to 5thousand a year. He said the targetwas to increase the membership to100,000 by 2020 and he stressed thatit was the responsibility of everymember to recruit a new member.Emphasis was being put on checkingof the lapsed members. He wasconcerned about the loss of Branchesbut he was pleased to announce thatthere were new branches opening oneof them being the City of Manchesterbranch. He then went on to discussthe financial state of the Associationadvising us that the Reserves hadgone up but expenditure on welfarehad increased by 30% since 2001.He went on to advise that there wasan emphasis on befriending toovercome the increasing numbers ofloneliness among the aging membersof the RAF Family. He said that there

was an urgent need to improve thequality of life of the members of theRAF Family. To achieve this, he saidthat where there was a shortage ofmembers wanting to take on the rolesof branch officers there was a need tobring on board volunteers to assist inrunning branches.

The Chief of Air Staff Air Marshal SirAndrew Pulford then gave his annualpresentation which as usual was veryinteresting and full of up to dateinformation of events in which the RAFis currently involved. He stressed thatdespite the withdrawal of most of theBritish forces from Afghanistan, theRAF is busier than ever being verymuch involved in activities in variousparts of the world. The Typhoons areinvolved in protecting the UK airspaceand are also deployed in the Baltic,and Tornados are involved in bombingmissions in Syria and Iraq. He saidthat because of this increased activitythe 3rd Squadron of Tornados will beretained for at least another year. Thesurveillance aircraft are also fullycommitted, especially in the middleeast. He was very concerned aboutthe pressures on the manpower andtheir families with all of the out oftheatre duties. In this respect hethanked the RAFA for its supportespecially to the families. He waspleased to say that the RAF wasgrowing and he outlined the incomingand planned new aircraft, but althoughthis will require a further 2,500personnel, to date the service is onlyallowed to recruit 300.

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The Chairman of Central Council,AVM Nigel Bairsto, gave his Reportfor 2015. This was his final report ashe was standing down as Chairmanof Central Council after 6 years. Hesaid that the RAFA has had torespond to the changes in thelandscape in the charity world. Therehas been a decrease in publicsupport/trust following recent badevents highlighted by the media. Hesaid that the Central Council (CC) hashad to focus on sector wideregulations and changes inlegislation. He stressed that RAFAwas a member-led charitable welfareorganisation in which high ethicallevels were maintained by the RAFA.This was followed by the FinancialReport for 2015 given by the HonTreasurer, Philip Tagg. He confirmedthat the Association was in a veryhealthy situation with fixed assets ofover £26M. He was especiallypleased to report that the pensionscheme liability had been reduce by£1M during 2015.

The conference was then briefed byDr Bryan Pattison, he leads sub-committee that has been reviewingthe Association Royal Charter, Rulesand Byelaws. Many of the 40resolutions that were going to putconference involved confirming theproposed amendments. There were131 delegates present for theafternoon session. However, only 21of the resolutions were heard andvoted upon before close of play on theSaturday

Sunday morning began with the usualparade and march past with the salutebeing taken by the RAFA Presidentand the Deputy Mayor of Blackpool.After the Service of Dedication,conducted by Chaplain in Chief,Royal Air Force, at the War Memorialduring which a Hurricane of the BoBMemorial Flight gave an impressivedisplay for 7 minutes, the delegatesreturned to the conference centre.Resuming the conference, the Paradetrophies were presented, followed bythe continuation of hearing theresolutions. There were only 113delegates registered for this session,but never the less there were anumber of discussions for and againstvarious resolutions. Unfortunately, theconference ran out of time and thePresident stated that the remaining 4resolutions would be considered byCentral Council at their next meeting.Further information can be found onthe Association’s web site at:w w w . r a f a . o r g . u k / w h a t - w e -do /news /ano the r -marve l l ous -conference-blackpool

Also full details of all the resolutionsare in the Annex of Bob’s report thatwill be on our Branch web site.

S E & E AREA CONFERENCE.This was held at Bracklesham Bayfrom 1st to 3rd APRIL . Conferenceopened on Saturday morning with awelcome from the ConferenceChairman Air Marshall Sir RogerAustin. This was followed by aninteresting presentation by the CO of

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RAF Swanwick, the Air Traffic ControlCentre, Wg Cdr Donna Robinson.Next the Chairman of Area Council,Barry Furness, gave his report and 2Vice Chairmen were elected one ofwhich was our own Wg Cdr BobShepherd. For the remainder of themorning we received a presentationfrom several RAFALOs led by Sqn LdrAdy Morris telling us what they do asRAFALOS on the various RAFstations and how they link into theAssociation and the branches.The afternoon session started with theconsideration of resolutions. Therewere 11 in total but only three affectthe running of the branch:1. That ordinary members over theage of 80 years of age be given freemembership for the rest of their life.This was lost.2. That membership renewals shall bemade on an anniversary basis and noton the present annual date system of1st January for everyone. This waslost.3. That a more substantial Wingsemblem is investigated to replace thecurrent lapel stickers. This was carried.Sunday morning should have startedwith a presentation on Volunteeringfollowed by an open question &answer session. However, we wereobliged to address the outstandingresolutions left over from Saturday.Business started with an emergencyresolution by the St Neots branch. To

give some background the RoyalCharter, Rules and Byelaws are beingamended and brought up-to-date.Following consultation a documentcontaining the amended version wasissued 2 weeks prior to Conference.The plan was for the delegates tostudy it, discuss it with branchmembers and be prepared to vote onit at Area Conference in order that itcould be put to Annual Conference inMay. The objections were the way itwas put together and the speed it wasbeing rushed through at. All but 2delegates agreed and so theresolution was carried.Another emergency resolutionfollowed put by the Dunstable branchwhich asked that an independentinvestigation is carried out into theprocurement, implementation and costof the new CRM database which iscausing deterioration in the serviceand support of the branches. It wascarried.We then received the scheduledpresentation by Alyson Hunter who isthe Association’s Dir of HumanResources and Volunteering. Herremit is to give the Associationmaximum visibility and recruit as manyvolunteers and befrienders aspossible. These people can then bematched to local branches wherethere is a need to fill vacant posts etc.the results so far are very positive.

Have you heard these?I thought I'd begin by reading a poem by Shakespeare, but then I thought, whyshould I? He never reads any of mine. Spike Milligan (1918-2002)

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The next edition is planned for Sep 2016. Please let me have any contributions byearly August. Thanks. Bryan Jenkins (Editor)

Phone 01256 881938 Email bryan@jenkins.eclipse.co.uk

We have a Branch web site!www.rafa.basingstoke.hampshire.org.uk

A police officer jumps into his squad car and calls the station.“I have an interesting case here,” he says. “A woman shot her husband forstepping on the floor she just mopped.”“Have you arrested her?” asks the sergeant.“No, not yet. The floor’s still wet.”

A statistician is someone who tells you, when you've got your head in the fridgeand your feet in the oven, that you're – on average - very comfortable.

A mosquito was heard to complainThat chemists had poisoned her brain.The cause of her sorrowWas para-dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane.

When I die, I want to go peacefully like my grandfather did – in his sleep. Notyelling and screaming like the passengers in his car. Bob Monkhouse (1928-2003)