MINUTES OF THE FUSILIER ASSOCIATION (LANCASHIRE) IN THE FUSILIER
MUSEUM, BURY, AT 1000 HRS ON SATURDAY 1ST FEBRUARY 2014
Apologies For Absence: Mike Rae (Bury Branch).
Present: Alan Noble (Vice Chairman), Dennis Laverick (Webmaster), Spud Taylor
(Secretary), Major Hindshaw (Treasurer), Colin Fletcher & Jim Worrall (Shiny D), Ron
Owen (Oldham), Charlie Davies (Trieste), Tom Bailey (Rochdale), Pete Flannery (Salford),
John Brophy & Nicky Mello ( Liverpool) & George Peak (Droylsden).
Minutes Of Last Meeting: Read and passed by Tom Bailey, 2nd by Major Hindshaw.
Vice Chairman’s Report: Thank you for attending this meeting. Lt Col. Mick Moran QGM
will be at the next meeting in March. Please ensure members who attend the M62 Coach
Memorial book their cars in at WH Smiths at Hartshead Moor Services, we are not sure if the
Signals Band will turn out however we have the Oldham & Scottish Pipe Band attending.
Treasurers Report: At the moment we have £11,542 in the account. Proposed By Dennis
Laverick, 2nd by Ron Owen.
Secretaries Report: The Bury Covenant has leapt forward in leaps and bounds beyond our
expectations by our last meeting, from courses/education to help veterans into jobs, priority
housing (private rented), Food Bank for veterans, social activities & help finding work
through Bury Gateway & Remploy who both deal with the education/courses too.
Events:
40th Anniversary of The M62 Coach Memorial Parade at 1030 hrs, Hartshead Moor Services
on Sunday 2nd Of February 2014. The Band will be The Royal Signals Band.
The Fusiliers Association (Rochdale) is holding a Ladies Night in The Masonic Hall, 1
Richard St, Rochdale OL11 1DU. Starting at 1930 hrs, Friday 14th of March 2014. Name’s
in to Tom Bailey. £25 PP.
Gallipoli & St George's Weekend 26-27 April 2014 in Bury, on Saturday Night there will be
drinks in the TAC Castle Armoury, Bury.
The Fusiliers Association (Rochdale) is holding a Minden Dinner Night in The Masonic Hall,
1 Richard St, Rochdale OL11 1DU. Starting at 1930 hrs, Saturday 2nd August 2014.
Name’s in to Tom Bailey. £25 PP.
The Fusiliers Association (Bury) is holding a Minden Charity Night in The Salisbury
Conservative Club, Bury, Lancashire, BL9 6AD. Starting at 1900 hrs, Saturday 2nd August
2014. £5 entry on the door to go towards the chosen charity by our Fallen Fusiliers parent’s.
World War One Day will be held the same day as Minden Day on Sunday the 3rd Of August
2014, We will march from the Town Hall to the Church, after the service return from the
Church straight into the Museum’s Gallipoli Garden ready for the Minden Drum Head
Service. Times will be released nearer the time.
Remembrance Sunday Parade (All Areas) is 9th November 2014.
The Fusiliers Association (Oldham) is holding another Fusiliers Association Christmas Party
on the 6th of December 2014 in Stockport. Name’s into Ronnie Owen. £25 PP.
The Fusiliers Association (Bury) is holding a Fusiliers Christmas Fundraiser For Our
Association of Drums in Lancashire, 1930 hrs, Saturday 13 December 2014 in The Salisbury
Conservative Club, Bury, Lancashire, BL9 6AD. £5 entry on the door to go towards the Our
Association of Drums.
Any Other Business:
Vice Chairman; We must stress to Association Members not to interfere in family feuds as it
can bring the Association & the Regiment into disrepute, we in Lancashire have lost 7
servicemen in the last few years and Fusilier Aid has helped our families through this charity,
we must highlight that this charity needs our constant support to help not just grieving
families but veterans from our Regiment whom have fallen on hard times. Norman
Armstrong Kersh -MBE, Life for A Life was made an honorary member for his services and
donations which a lot of us were not aware of eg; wooden frames/cases for historical artefacts
in the museum, a date base for medals the list just goes on.
We would like an RRF standard bearer from Bury to carry the Standard on Gallipoli this
year, Bury branch said they will ask their members at the Branch meeting tomorrow.
Webmaster; The veterans we were tasked to deal with in our areas have all been contacted
and dealt with appropriately. We must let our Branch members know that Help For Heroes
can and do sometimes help families and veterans from our Regiment. Our Association of
Band & Drums will be leading the Veterans Parade in Blackpool on the 29th of June, we need
names as it is intended this year to pick up at Bury, Oldham & Rochdale (The Bury Branch
has paid £300 towards this coach), we need to know numbers before we order the coach, this
parade is extremely big, more so this year as the veteran drummers will be having a reunion
too. When we go to funerals I need to know if the families want them to go on the Fusiliers
At Rest page plus we will need a photo from the family.
Droylsden; We now have a new Treasurer but our accounts has not yet been transferred in his
name so we are now paying Major Hindshaw in cash our branch subs for 2013.
Salford; We have not collected subs for last year yet, we have tried to get more history on
one of our members to put on the citation for his medal none of his family know any details,
Webmaster recommended he just gets the dates of service of what you have on him so it can
be done ASAP.
Bury; Our PRI order was a success and we are very glad we got through to acquire our stores
as the Fusilier Museum prices have risen again, we have found that the PRI is moving back to
London in the near future so we may go without a PRI during this move from Durham for a
short while in 2014. It looks like moving our Branch Meetings from a week night to a Sunday
afternoon has been the making of the Branch and now has 120 members, we drew to our last
Branch Meeting 55 members (three names I could not recognise so they are added to this
figure). Our yearly subs have been paid for 2013. Webmaster; why we do not use the
Museum for our Branch Meeting? It had been put to the Branch on occasions but they are
very happy where they are with a constant flow on new members joining the Branch & an
excellent social atmosphere. We have created The Minden & Christmas Charity/Fundraiser
Events to bring back the numbers we used to have in our area, the Salisbury Club can
accommodate us all as its as big as our old Fusiliers Club, after these two events we will be
raising money for Fusiliers Aid at our Christmas event. The Bury Branch’s yearly outing is
to The Birmingham International Tattoo this year.
Rochdale; We have applied for a grant towards a coach to Ypres this year. Elwin Pickup is
now back as Secretary of the Rochdale Branch.
Trieste; Things are still the same within the Branch we soldier on, most are ill but we do our
best to attend parades and events, we have 25 members.
Oldham; We had our Christmas Function and drew 190 members, numbers were down
slightly on the previous year, this year will be bigger secretary’s will get a detailed letter
around July.
Before we post anything on facebook always check with the source and get permission,
especially on funerals please check from the Tower if they had served.
Liverpool; I (John Brophy) am standing in for Frank Dunphy and may well get voted in as
the next Chairman of the Branch.
Ron Owen on Membership; Members now stand at around 580 members, actual paid up
member are 546 and between associate/honorary members it comes to 580. We have 14
people whom have joint membership; Bury holds the record with 5 members. I sent 1092
emails explaining as much information as possible to draw people back to the fold, once they
are back we need to ensure they have an official letter with a bank standing order to try and
draw in more members, it is up to the work the Branch Secretary’s put in to draw these new
members. Webmaster requested he take ‘Oldham Branch’ off the recruiting letter headline
for the whole association as it looks like just an Oldham Branch Recruiting letter. We must
get our members post codes correct and ensure I get them for the newsletter, out of 546
newsletters we sent out we have only had three returned, we are still waiting for the bill but
all was done by the printers we hired and an impressive book was turned out, they printed,
enveloped, stamped and mailed it out, all was in agreement how impressive it was. I do
apologise for the delay in posting this out as we was waiting for write ups from battalions
which never materialised.
NEXT CHAIR MEETING WILL BE 1000 HRS SATURDAY THE 1st OF MARCH 2014.