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RONALD GORDON FROST27 APRIL 1928 – 26 AUGUST 2016

Gordon Frost had a long and distinguished record of service tothe Royal British Legion. He joined the West Bergolt Branch, andon it’s closure transferred to the Great & Little Horkesley Branch.He served as the Branch Standard Bearer from 1973 until thisBranch eventually closed. He also served as the BranchChairman and later as President. He was the Branchrepresentative to A Group. At Group level he was elected to theCounty Committee, was Group Chairman and later President

His service to the Essex County Committee is legend havingserved for an unbroken period of 49 years, a record that isunlikely to be broken. During that time he served on the CountyConference Committee for 39 years, 23 of them as Chairman.Gordon was, in turn, awarded the Legion Gold Badge, LifeMembership and the National Certificate of Appreciation for hiswork and service to the Legion.

TOP ROYAL BRITISH LEGIOL AWARDGordon Frost, pictured above (right), with County PresidentColonel R A Shervingham TD DL, on the occasion of hisretirement from the Essex County Committee in January 2011.

MAY HE REST IN PEACEWARD

COUNTY WELFARE FUND

GROUP & BRANCH DONATIONS

1 JULY 2015 TO 30 JUNE 2016

FINANCIAL INFORMATION NOWAPPEARS ON A SEPARATE PAGE.

THIS PAGE WILL BE ENHANCED OVERTHE COMING ISSUES AND IT IS HOPEDTO PROVIDE A FULL PICTURE OF THE

COUNTY FINANCES TO ALL.

PLEASE FEEL FREE TO MAKE ANYSUGGESTIONS TO THE EDITOR ASWHAT COULD, OR COULD NOT, BE

INCLUDED ON THE PAGE. BY EMAILPLEASE

‘Coming together is a beginning.

Keeping together is progress.

Working together is success.’(Henry Ford)

COUNTY NOTICES

THE ROYAL BRITISH LEGIONESSEX COUNTYNEWSLETTER

SEPTEMBEROCTOBER

2016

OBITUARY

THE NEWSLETTERIs edited by Bryan Emery (Deputy County Treasurer)He may be contacted on any matter concerning

the newsletter including suggestions forimprovement, layout, or what have you! You may

send contributions for inclusion in thenewsletter direct to the Email address shown

below. It would be helpful if all contributions aresent using Ariel 9 point font.

bryan.emery@btinternet.com

PLEASE SEE NOTES

CONCERNING SUBMISSION OF

BRANCH ACCOUNTS ON THE

FINANCE PAGE

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RENEWALS

The bulk renewal letters started to go out on 25th August.The mailing will be staggered over approx. 10 days– theDirect Debit payers will be prioritised. The letters will bebased on the previous payment method – e.g. if someonepaid by Direct Debit last year, they will not get a letteroffering them all the other payment options as we wantthem to continue paying by DD as the cheapest optionfor RBL. The fact that members receive lettersaccording to their last year’s payment type does notmean that they cannot change the payment method. E.g.regardless of which letter a member gets, they can stillsign up for DD, pay by cheque or pay cash in branch.

The total amount on the letters includes annual donationas stated by member when joining. It is very importantthat members who don’t want to continue paying thedonation, or wish to change the amount, inform us byemailing membershipservices@britishlegion.org.uk orcalling Novacroft using the number provided on theletter. This way we can remove the donation andmembers won’t have any outstanding balance on theiraccount and won’t get a letter informing them of theunderpayment.

The DD collection falls on 3 October (this is because 1October is on Saturday this year). Members whose DDcollection fails will be informed within 10 working daysof the collection date.

Members paying by cheque must attach the remittanceslip to the cheque. Cheques without remittance slips willnot be processed. Members can pay one cheque for allfamily members if they wish to do so. It is veryimportant to clearly state all paying members on thecheque and attach remittance slips to avoid anyconfusion and misallocation of funds

Branches sending us bulk cheque payments (one chequewith multiple membership payments) must attach acorrectly completed membership/ payment list. Theamount on the cheque must correspond with the list. Anycheques that cannot be reconciled will be returned to thebranch.Branches that told us what their branch subscription feeamount is, must not keep this fee upon receivingpayments from members. The fee should be included inthe bulk cheque; otherwise members will have anoutstanding balance on their record. The bulk chequesmust not contain payments for the renewing membersand new joiners at the same time! Branches are requestedto send the bulk payments frequently to avoid delay tothe cards despatch by significant period of time.

A proposed timeline is shown below:

25th August –renewal letters start to go out:

o 25/08 and 26/08 - 45,000 per day Direct Debitletters

o 27/08 – 45,000 Direct Debit + CPA letters

o From 31 August – the rest of the letters to goout – daily limit tbc, but the plan is to send thelast letters on 6th September at the latest.

3rd October – bulk Direct Debit collection.

Any members with underpayments will receivea letter asking them to pay the outstandingbalance

From 14th November – renewal reminder letterssent to those members who did not make anypayment.

From 2 January 2017 – lapsing advice sent tomembers who failed to renew.

MS1

Please note that ALL branches must return their MS1forms by the deadline date of 31st December. Branchesare to complete these following their Branch AGMswhich are to take place in October/November.

MSO MAIL

Mail for MSO’s can now be sent to the followingaddress:

Membership Support OfficerRoyal British Legion168 New London RoadChelmsfordCM2 0AR

FESTIVAL OF REMEMBRANCE

Branches who have applied to the MSO and weresuccessful in obtaining tickets have been notified. Eachyear there are a number of excess tickets for the eveningperformance. From 3rd – 9th October, these will beavailable to Legion members via the Royal Albert Hall’sbox office on a first come, first served basis. To ensurethese remain exclusively for Legion members, individualmembership numbers will be needed to purchase tickets.This minor change is designed to ensure members have afair and equal opportunity to attend. There is a nominalcharge of £10 per ticket for all evening performancetickets

COUNTY OFFICE NEWS

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BURNHAM-ON-CROUCH

BRANCH

On Sunday 28th August Burnham-on-Crouch Branch ofthe Royal British Legion continued to honour the Menfrom the Town who gave up their lives in the GreatWar.One hundred years ago in August 1916, there weretwo casualties: Bombardier Sidney Sains of the RoyalField Artillery who had joined the army before the war.He went to France at the outbreak of War and foughtat Mons, and the Marne before going to Ypres for thefirst battle there. During 1915 he survived the Battle ofLoos. He was killed on 29th August 1916 during theBattle of the Somme mending a broken wire. He iscommemorated on the Thiepval memorial to theMissing of the Somme. Private Sidney Smith enlistedin the Royal Army Medical Corps and was posted to34th General Hospital at Doolali in India. He died ofcholera on 2nd August 1916. He was buried in DoolaliCemetery but is commemorated on the Kirkee WarMemorial near Poona which commemorates thosemen who died in India during World War 1 who wereburied elsewhere in India and Pakistan but whosegraves cannot be maintained properly.The photograph shows Mrs M Cousins & Mrs MDenison laying the Poppy Crosses at the Burnham-on-Crouch War Memorial

DEBDEN BRANCH RBL

SUPPORTS

CARVER BARRACKS OPEN

DAYDebden Branch was invited to man a RBL Stand at theCarver Barracks Open Day on Saturday 23rd July. ThreeBranch Members, Stewart Luck, Richard Cawte and RogerManser, volunteered to look after the Stand during theevent, which started at 11.30 am and finished at 4.00 pm.The Open Day which included a stunt plane show, a CarBoot Sale, the Band of the Royal Corps of Engineers andnumerous military displays and demonstrations proved agreat success and drew an estimated audience of over twothousand. Carver Barracks organises an Open Day like thisevery two years. Entry was free with the only charge beingfor Car Parking.

BRANCH AND GROUP NEWS & EVENTS

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Some readers may remember that late last year I received a

communication from David Forsyth, a retired RAF Officer living in

South West France, asking for help to trace any relatives of

Sergeant Reginald Thomas Rudlin, 35 Squadron, Royal Air

Force who was killed in July 1941 and wrote an article asking if

anyone knew of any relatives.

His aircraft, a Halifax of 35 Squadron was shot down and crashed

near Angles, Vendee, France after attacking the German battleship

Scharnhorst, sheltering near La Rochelle. Five crew members were

killed and two survived as Prisoners of War. One of the five, who

are all buried in Angles Communal Cemetery, is Sergeant Reginald

Thomas Rudlin, a Coggeshall man who is mentioned in

Coggeshall’s Roll of Honour. This can be seen on Coggeshall

museum’s website, www.coggeshallmuseum.org.uk. The sacrifice of

these heroic young men has entered the collective psyche of the

villagers of Angles who erected a Memorial on the spot of the crash

and who commemorate that sacrifice each 24th July. The villagers

planned a major commemoration for the 75th Anniversary in 2016

and were anxious to find relatives of each crew member to join the

British Air Attaché and British and French dignitaries on the day.

I discovered in my research that Olive, one of Reginald’s sisters,

had a daughter called Diane Margaret who was born in 1944 in

Coggeshall and married David Williams in Heybridge near Maldon in

1963. I later found out that Reginald’s mother and my maternal

grandmother were first cousins, thus making Reg my second cousin

once removed, and Diane my third cousin. Diane and I met up

earlier this year at Coggeshall museum. She kindly shared a lot of

family pictures with me as well as copies of Reg’s last letters. From

his letters to his sister Olive and her husband Ted Willis, it appears

that Reg had a fiancee and they were planning to marry very soon.

His last letter, written on 21st

July, spoke of a move on

promotion to a different aircrew

and of his expected leave being

postponed. The move

happened and his first mission

was with Halifax L9527-M which

took off from Stanton Harcourt

to attack the Scharnhorst. The

aircraft was last seen in the

target area descending in a

slow spiral with smoke coming

from one or two of its engines.

In July this year the village held

the commemoration and it was attended by 400 people, local

dignitaries, villagers, and bands and standards including several

from the Royal British Legion overseas branches. David had

managed to trace relatives of all but one crew member and several

had made the journey to attend. Unfortunately, due to health and

family circumstances, Diane and I were unable to

attend but I arranged for David to lay a posy of poppies on our

behalf on Reginald’s grave and asked him to thank the mayor and

people of Angles for the care that they have taken over the years of

a 'Coggeshall boy' and to say that we know that he will always be

safe and honoured in their keeping. A service was held at the

cemetery and wreaths and tributes were laid at all the graves. David

spoke about the event (in perfect French as well as English) and the

whole day was blessed with good weather. It was given good

coverage on local television and later covered by ITV Wales (a link

below)

http://www.itv.com/news/wales/2016-08-01/family-of-ww2-pilot-killed-in-action-tracked/

After the ceremonies an elderly gentleman approached David with acollection of aircraft pieces that he had collected afterwards at thecrash site when he was a teenager and requested that the relicsshould be passed on to family members. These pieces have nowarrived and will be on display in Coggeshall museum in the 2017season.I would like to thank everyone who gave me information to help inthe search and hope you find the outcome interesting.Shirley Ratcliffe, volunteer curator at Coggeshall Museum

SUCCESS IN SEARCH FOR WAR HERO’S RELATIVES

CONTINUATION OF THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE IN

JANUARY/FEBRUARY ISSUE

ANGLES WAR GRAVES

SGT REGINALD RUDLIN

POSTER FOR THE EVENT

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SITUATIONS VACANT

THE POST OF COUNTY TRAINING

OFFICER HAS FALLEN VACANT.

ANY MEMBER WHO IS INTERESTED

IN FILLING THIS POST ARE

INVITED TO CONTACT THE

COUNTY MSO ON 01245 347123

FOR FURTHER DETAILS.

FULL TRAINING IS AVAILABLE AND

ALL NECESSSARY EQUIPMENT IS

HELD.

PLEASE CIRCULATE TO ALL

MEMBERS

THE POSITION OF COUNTY

RECRUITING OFFICER IS

STILL UNFILLED.

INTERESTED?

CALL THE MSO ON 01245

347123

COUNTY FINANCES

COUNTY WELFARE FUND

GROUP & BRANCH DONATIONS

1 JULY 2016 TO 30 JUNE 2017

GROUP/BRANCH £

CHELMSFORD 525.5

TOTAL FROM GROUPS/BRANCHES 525.5

COUNTY GENERAL ACCOUNT AWAITING RECONCILLIATION

COUNTY WELFARE ACCOUNT AWAITING RECONCILLIATION

COUNTY GENERAL BFI ACCOUNT 32,887.00

COUNTY WELFARE BFI ACCOUNT 71,960.00

TOTAL FUNDS HELD AT 1 OCTOBER 2016 104,847.00

ANNUAL SUBMISSIONOF ACCOUNTS

The followingbranches have not, as

at 1 October 2016submitted their annual

audited accounts tothe County Office.

Branches arereminded that

accounts are requiredto be submitted by 30

September

AbridgeBillericayBoxtedBurnham on CrouchClactonElmsteadGreat WakeringHarwichHedinghamsNorth WealdTakeleyThaxted

BRANCH FUND INITIATIVE1.9851%

PAGE - FINANCE