Royal Naval Association Bexhill Branch

Royal Naval Association Bexhill Branch - May 9

OUR monthly branch meeting, held on the occasion of the Queen's birthday, was attended by 42 shipmates, the best 'turn out' of the year. Is this the effect of spring getting into the old bones? The evening commenced with a very interesting talk and slide show presented by Christine Hayward entitled 'The Spanish Armada'.

Her talk encompassed not only the build up by King Philip 11 of Spain of his 'la felicissima armada', a fleet of some 150 ships, but also how the battles in the English Channel involved the town of Hastings and its fishing fleet.

Her slides showed many paintings of the personnel involved in this great battle, whose names have been proudly worn by ships of the Royal Navy since the time of the 'Armada'.

The monthly ship identification competition featured the Battleship HMS Warspite who carried the most Battle Honours of any ship in the Royal Navy. The winner of the bottle for giving the nearest correct number of Battle Honours was S/M Denys Carden.

The Royal Naval Associations main charity for 2008 is the 'Help for Heroes' charity. The Bexhill branch are supporting this throughout the year.

Help for Heroes first task is to raise money to help build a swimming pool and gym complex at Headley Court, the tri service rehabilitation centre at Leatherhead. Our servicemen deserve the very best facilities to help them recover from their terrible wounds.

The branch's first event to raise money for Help for Heroes was a special raffle, all the prizes were donated by the branch shipmates who also bought all the raffle tickets and won all the prizes. The generosity of the members present raised a grand total of 292.

Other events and donations will be added to this during the coming months. Shipmates who are unable to attend meetings and are wishing to donate to this very worthwhile charity should send their cheques to any Bexhill branch officer.

Our next meeting is on Monday, May 19, 7.30pm for 8pm when the speaker will be Bexhill Museum curator Julian Porter on the history of the Brassey family.