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National Trophies 2014
I am very pleased to announce the following awards to Branches, RAF Stations and Units and in our Area:
The Sir Thomas Pike TrophyHighest Net Collection (including Air Shows) by a Branch in 2014 / Shoreham by Sea
The Gwynne-Vaughan Trophy
Home Branch with the highest net collection per member (including Air Shows) for 2014 / Shoreham by Sea
Branch Newsletter Trophy / Kenley & Caterham
The Lord Tedder Trophy
RAF Station achieving highest net collection for Wings Appeal / RAF Brize Norton
The Sir Geoffrey Bromet Trophy
Awarded for exceptional achievement by an RAF Unit in support of the Association. / RAF Wittering
The Air Show Plate
Awarded for exceptional achievement by a RAF Unit in support of Air Shows / RAF Scampton
The Marquis of Amodio Trophy
RAF Station recruiting the highest number of new members relative to the number of personnel (Crown servants and civilians but excluding serving Army and Royal Navy personnel) employed on the Station. / RAF Northolt
Wally Marriott RAFALO Trophy
For the RAFALO making an outstanding contribution to the Association / Cpl Kerry Sawyer
RAF Marham
Congratulations to everyone, these Trophies will be presented during Annual Conference
in Eastbourne.
Lapsed Members
As at 30 April, the Area had 1,196 Ordinary and Associate members who had not yet renewed for this year. It is incumbent upon all of us to try and recover these lapsed members. I would ask all Branches to make every effort to personally contact those of their members who have not yet renewed. It should not be forgotten that a personal visit or phone call to someone who has not yet renewed their membership may highlight an underlying welfare problem. Please do not forget that a life membership is exactly that for life.
Battle of Britain Memorial Day – Capel le Ferne – 12 July 2015
To commemorate the 75th Anniversary of the Battle of Britain, a Service and Parade will be held at the National Battle of Britain Memorial, Capel le Ferne, Folkestone, Kent, on Sunday 12 July 2015. Standard Bearers of the Royal Air Forces Association are once again invited to attend and take part.
It would be appreciated if any Standard Bearer wishing to attend could fill in the ‘tear off’ reply slip on the invitation attached to this Newsletter and return it direct to Robin Green.
The City Of London Street Collection
Friday 4th September 2015
Once again South East Office is organising a collection in the City of London in aid of “WINGS APPEAL”. The collection this year will be on Friday 4th September 2015 using the Guildhall as a base.
To assist this venture the South East Office can offer travel expenses and all equipment for your collecting needs.
Collecting may start from 0600hrs until 1300hrs. Should collectors wish to use their own collecting boxes please let us know in advance in order that we may allocate a box number.
All money collected by individuals will be credited to their own Branch.
Collectors should register with the South East Office in advance by contacting Naz Angha on 0208 286 6667 or by e-mail to:
This event would not be able to take place without the support of members, including serving members, and we are therefore seeking your help to once more make this collection as successful as in previous years.
London Railway Station Collections 15th September 2015
To coincide with the Battle of Britain 75th Anniversary Commemoration Service being held at St Paul’s Cathedral on 15th September, permits have also been arranged for a collection that day at 10 railway stations in London. The Railway stations involved are:
Paddington Charing Cross
King’s Cross Euston
St Pancras Liverpool Street
Cannon Street Waterloo
London Bridge Victoria
Collections will take place at the stations from 07.00 hours in the morning. We would like as many volunteers as possible to help out with these collections. If anyone feels they are able to help out on the day, even if only for a few hours, could they please let Naz Angha at the South East Office know at or at 02086140376. It would be helpful if any volunteers would indicate if they have a preference to collect at a particular station from the list above and the hours they are available.
Annual Service of Remembrance and Dedication of Memorials 2015
Every year the RAF Association, along with service families and local branches, celebrates the lives of those RAF personnel past and present honoured in our Garden of Remembrance based at the National Memorial Arboretum, Alrewas, Staffordshire. This year’s annual Service of Remembrance and Dedication of Memorials to be held on Friday 19th June 2015.
Royal Air Force personnel and their families dedicate their lives to the service of their country. Sometimes they pay the ultimate sacrifice in service, while some succumb to illness and others pass away in the fullness of time, leaving behind comrades, friends and their loved ones.
The service will honour all of those remembered in our garden and will dedicate the crosses and stones placed in the Remembrance Garden during 2014/15
Details of the service are as follows:
Location: RAF Association Remembrance Garden
National Memorial Arboretum
Alrewas
Staffordshire
DE13 7AR
Date: Friday 19th June 2015
Start time: 10:30
Finish time: 13:00 approximately
If you have any questions regarding the event, please contact Vinny Manak on 0116 268 8791 or email .
Volunteering update
The volunteering programme is progressing well and we are excited to have our first new volunteers through, ready for training, as part of the South East Pilot. Sue Smith, Area Welfare Officer for the South East, has been selecting and interviewing our new volunteers, ready for the next training course in June. We are looking forward to welcoming them and inducting them into the Association.
Work continues to be done on planning to make it easy for volunteers to register and be trained. For example, we are looking at what training our new fundraisers will need, in order to learn more about what it means to be an RAF Association volunteer and to help them do the best job for us that they can. We are therefore looking at making the training as easy as possible and will be basing it on some online learning we have seen being used successfully in other charities, such as the ‘Dementia Friends’ online training the Alzheimer’s Society has produced. We are also ensuring that volunteers can access information and training for welfare work and fundraising, as quickly and easily as possible.
In the next two weeks we will be sending out information, to all Branches, to let them know about how the volunteer programme can help and support them if they need and want it, including a Q&A about volunteering, a menu of suggested ways they might like to recognise their volunteers also information about how Branches can tell us if they have Branch official vacancies. Keep an eye out for this at your next Branch meeting.
As always, if you have any questions, please contact Katharine Montgomery on or on 0116 268 8794. We’ll update you again next month if we don’t see you before at Conference.
Door to Door Fundraising is a Great Success
Last year we carried out further campaigns of door to door fundraising in the Lincolnshire and Bournemouth areas. The company conducting the calls was carefully selected for its professional approach to this type of fundraising. Last year they knocked on over 104,400 doors and recruited over 1930 new supporters, who are paying on average £11.79 per month (including gift aid).
We know, that as members of the RAF Association, you may have been worried about the adverse response that this type of fundraising may attract. We are pleased to inform you that we received only a small amount of complaints from individuals about the scheme, all of which were dealt with positively.
Due to the success of previous campaigns we are again rolling another program which will include the Nottinghamshire Lincolnshire and Derbyshire areas. To keep you posted we will publish the post code areas that the fundraising teams will be working in on the main RAFA web site
For more information about the Door to Door fundraising campaign please contact Neil Everall Direct Fundraising Manager or by calling 0116 266 5224.
2015 Eastern Inter-Branch Quiz 25th June 2015
The 2015 Eastern Inter-Branch Quiz will be hosted by the RAFA Peterborough Branch and will be held at the RAFA Yaxley Branch Club, the Lancaster Club, 152 Main Street, Yaxley, Peterborough, PE7 3YP on 25th June 2015 beginning at 19.30 hours and a buffet will be provided. It is expected that the quiz will last approximately 2 hours.
Branches may enter as many teams of between 4-6 members. However where this is not possible we shall make teams up on the night.
Further details can be obtained from the RAFA Peterborough Branch Secretary Jennifer Clarke, r phone number: - 07710258653.
Photographer attending Annual Conference for portrait project
Photographer Stephen Porteous will be attending Annual Conference this year as part of his Military Veterans Portrait Project. He is going to be travelling around the country photography veterans of all ages from all three Services. The portraits will be informal, the main point of interest is the subject themselves so dress is totally down to the individual (medals, blazers, berets etc). Each subject will receive an electronic copy of their portrait, for those without access to a computer Stephen is trying to arrange a sponsor who will print the image free of charge. The images will only be used for this project, no financial gain will be made from the images and they will never be passed onto any third party other than the RAF Association. The images may be displayed at public exhibitions and for this reason each subject will be asked to sign a release form permitting this.
Stephen said: “My time in the Forces made who I am today,” explains Stephen Porteous. “As veterans, we do not ask for thanks and we don’t expect gratitude. As members of the public, this doesn’t mean we can’t show our respect. This project is a fantastic way of giving something back, and I am thrilled and excited to be involved.”
Stephen will be attending Conference on the Saturday and anyone wanting to take part can just go and see him on his ‘stall’. Our photographer Kam will also be attending to take Conference pictures as usual.
If you have any questions about this you can call Emma Reed, Association Media and PR Manager on 0116 268 8760.
Request for Assistance
Did you Wing Commander Brendan Finucane DSO, DFC and 2 bars? Were you or someone you know based at Montrose, Kirton-in-Lindsey, Hornchurch, Tangmere or Kenley and knew of him?
Do you have any memories, stories, photos or memorabillia that may assist an amateur researcher with an exciting project? If so, and if you would like to be involved, please contact John Donovan, 6 Priors Croft, Walthamstow, London E17 5NJ T: 07707 233 046 or at
Royal International Air Tattoo RAF Fairford 17th-19th July 2015
Between 1st February and 31st May, Earlybird tickets will be available priced at £31 for the Friday ticket, £41 for a Saturday ticket and £41 for the Sunday ticket.
The standard advance ticket will go on sale 1st June, priced at £36 for the Friday ticket £46 for the Saturday ticket and £46 for a Sunday ticket.
For full admission ticket details and to see the wide range of optional upgrades designed to enhance your enjoyment of the Royal International Air Tattoo 2015, visit www.airtattoo.com.
Shoreham Airshow 22nd August – 23rd August 2015
The Royal Air Forces Association Airshow at Shoreham organised by the Shoreham-by-Sea Branch of the Royal Air Forces Association is one of the premier family airshows in the UK. The airshow regularly attracts the best UK and European display acts to its unique “garden party” atmosphere. Shoreham is the oldest licensed airfield in the UK and has a beautiful Grade II listed art deco style Terminal Building.
The show is held to support the work of the Royal Air Forces Association. Since the shows inception, the event has raised over £1.8 million for RAFA. The flying display will feature strong support from the armed forces as well as exciting aerobatic and emotive historic aircraft displays. On the ground there will be extensive static displays, arena displays, classic cars and trade stalls.
Ticket Information
· Advanced tickets for Shoreham Airshow will be available ONLINE at www.shorehamairshow.co.uk
· Tickets purchased in advance are valid for either show day but not both.
· Tickets may be purchased on the day of the airshow by CASH or CHEQUE ONLY.
Ticket Prices
Advance Tickets / On the GateAdult / £18 / £22
Child (5-15) / £5 / £8
Under 5s / FREE / FREE
Group Booking (16 or more)
Adult / £16 / Only available from Air Show Office
Child(5-15) / £4 / Only available from Air Show Office
Donations For April 2015
Area Welfare
Mr H R Spinks / £1,000.00Mrs J Church in memory of Mr Dennis Murray / £25.00
In memory of Mr A Moore / £25.00
In memory of Mr Roy Naylor / £50.00
TOTAL / £1,100.00
Eastern Respite Care Fund
RAFA Cambridge Branch / £400.00RAFA Stamford Branch / £7,908.31
TOTAL / £8,308.31
South East Respite Care Fund
RAFA Crawley Branch / £2,277.23TOTAL / £2,277.23
Hemsby Chalets
RAFA Cambridge Branch / £400.00Mr Hercombe / £25.00
TOTAL / £425.00
Selsey Welfare Holiday Home
RAFA Crawley Branch / £2,578.64RAFA Huntingdon & District Branch / £2,000.00
TOTAL / £4,578.64
GRAND TOTAL £16,689.18
Ken Clarke
South East & Eastern Area Director
Enclosures:
1. RAFALO Update
2. Capel le Ferne letter
Patron: Her Majesty The Queen
Registered Charity 226686 in England & Wales. SCO37673 in Scotland
www.rafa.org.uk