Parachute Regiment mascot gets new box from Equi-Trek
PEGASUS the pony will be representing his military masters in style, thanks to a new liveried horsebox.
The Shetland pony is the Parachute Regiment mascot, and attends a number of engagements each year.
But his travel arrangements hit a snag 12 months ago, when the horsebox he was using was condemned. Since then, he and Pony Major Alex McCrea have been relying on friends and contacts to lend them trailers and horseboxes.
Now Equi-Trek has presented them with one of its best models in the regimental colours of maroon and silver.
Lieutenant Colonel John Handford said: “Alongside the Red Devils freefall team and the regimental band, the mascot is very important to us, and highly popular with the public.
“This will ensure he takes his rightful place at many ceremonial events and military shows.”
The Pony Major, Lance Corporal Alex McCrea, said: “We have not really had any proper transport for the past 18 months, so this is fantastic.”
Pegasus, named after the winged horse of Greek mythology, tours the country and appears at shows and military ceremonies.
L/Cpl McCrea looks after 13-year-old Pegasus and his 26-year-old companion, Dodger, in the stables at the Colchester Garrison Saddle Club, in Fordham.
Christmas Bash
On Tuesday 29th December 2009,19 Old Comrades met up to Shoot the Shit and have a good time. Al Parker Jnr came up with the idea which is now going to be a regular occurrence as everyone had a great time.
The plan was to meet up in the "Horseshoe Bar" but eventually we had to move to the "Goose" as there was to many of us. With the drinks flowing freely and with customers being told to vacate their seats for us it was just like the good old days. A point noted was that Shuggy Wilson swears blind he is 45 years old and has never dyed his hair, we all nearly fell over!! Eventually we did when Denis Mc Cormick was seen to buy a round.
As the pub crawl came to an end we had reached the "Crystal Palace" and some of us were on our last legs (Or was that Kegs?) We even managed to gang up on Santa for a group photo
Armistice day Denny 2009
This year at Denny Matt Mulligan, Jon Hansard, and Jim Colquhoun were joined by Derek Pudney. Derek laid the wreath at the Denny cennotaph, it was a very good turnout on a bright sunny morning, on parade there was a small contingent from France who marched with their Standard.
Oosterbeek Cemetery 20th Sept 2009
Ken Primrose Bill Gordon (seated) and Stuart Mathewson
AIRBORNE FORCES SCOTLAND / WEEKEND IN ABERDEEN
Happy Staff of ANDREW WARNOCK Butchers in Bankhead, Rutherglen are the lucky winners of the raffle held by the Aberdeen Branch of the Parachute Regimental Association. 1st Prize of £550 worth of holiday vouchers donated by "Kinnaird Travel of Peterhead" was presented by John Mc Keown, a member of our branch, on behalf of the Aberdeen Branch to: from left to right: Janet, Andrew, Liz and Eveylyn.
 Over the period 26/27/28 June 2009 over 20 branch members, including family and friends made the long journey up north to support our Airborne brotherhood in Aberdeen. Once again the Aberdeen branch, under the leadership of Bob Crocker, Norman Laird and Bill Mc Kenzie to name but a few took on the challenge of hosting another AB day for us here in Scotland especially.
It has to be recorded that they again exelled themselves in this task, which included rounding the "WEEGIES" up on the Saturday to take part in the Armed Forces and Veterans day parade. Once we had cashed our Giro's we set off to drink Aberdeen dry, starting at the Ceilidh. The next day was the finale, the Airborne Forces Day!! From start to finish it went like clockwork. Some of us were in actual fact sorry to have to head home later that day as the party had really started to liven up. We managed to set off though before Denis Mc Cormick started to sing, which was a bonus!! WHO? Doesn't know "Bonnie Mary of Argyll?" Or is it Bonnie "Morag" (Ask Denis!!)
We did though head home with a few prizes won by members and friends who had bought a ticket from a member. Most notable was John Mc Keown ( Known as "HORSE" to some of us ) had sold his local Butcher shop in Rutherglen ( A. Warnock Butchers) the winning ticket for the Top prize, which was £550 in holiday vouchers. A special thanks to our Standard Bearer Sammy Moynihan for representing the Branch over this period when in fact he was very I'll. He ended up in Aberdeen Royal Infirmary. Like a True Airborne Warrior he took it all in his stride and signed himself out. He managed to get back home with his wife Janette acting as his nurse. Hope you are on the mend Sammy and Janette, thanks for putting up with him, he is a hard task master.
THANK YOU TO ALL
Sammy would like to thank everyone who enquired about his wellbeing, especially the Aberdeen Branch Committee and Frank Cameron for driving him (Mad) all the way home.
Hollybush House Treatment Centre
David Steel, Bobby Steel, Terry Mc Court, Gary Walker, Frank Cameron, Ken Primrose and Bobby Esplin
On Friday 7th August 2009 led by our President Bobby Steele we travelled to Hollybush House Treatment Centre near Ayr, to present a cheque for the sum of £1,269:51 that volunteers from the branch managed to raise for this great cause.
We were met at the gates (after a tour of Ayrshire - Who gave Bobby the map?) by our presidents brother, David who is one of the interviewing officers. (Can you tell they are identical twins?) We then proceeded to have a tour of the house, after having been given a history lesson of the place from Gary Walker, the Senior Clinical nursing Officer. What an amazing place this is, right on our doorstep.
Did you know that the Centre provide short term care and treatment for over 850 Ex-Service personnel aged 22-94 years of age who suffer from mental health problems including severe forms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder directly related to their service in the Forces. They admit Veterans from all campaigns from World War 11, the Falklands, the Gulf War, Afghanistan, Bosnia and of course, Northern Ireland.
All care is provided entirely free of charge to the Veterans and all donations are gratefully received. There you go, we now have a better understanding of Hollybush House. After eating them out of house and home we eventually said our good-byes and travelled home in the RIGHT DIRECTION!!
We raised an astonishing £3,274.48p
On Saturday 16th May 2009 Mr Connal Cochrane, the Manager of the Rangers F.C Charity foundation invited the branch to hold a Can collection at Ibrox park for an hour and a half leading up to the kick off with Aberdeen F.C in the Scottish premier division.
As you can imagine, we all "JUMPED" at this chance and so on the morning 26 members, Led by our "True Blue" Chairman Frank Cameron and his assistant Sammy Moynihan and the Paisley Gang, dragged themselves along to help out. Wee Tommy Lang was that keen he arrived a week before the event!! AIRBORNE. Wee Davie Sproul ( Who is the same size as Wee Tommy? / Work that out) had to be warned for Singing the SASH. It wasn't the words that offended the members, he was just a pure SHIT SINGER!! (Fae CLYDEBANK?)
The Group 4 Security Supervisor gave us all a spiel on the Do's ( So did Davie Murphy ) and the Don't's ( leave the HENS alone) and one of his staff put us all in position prior to the kick off. As the time went by the place began to fill up and the generosity shown to the members from both sets of fans was second to none. We raised an astonishing £3,274:48p.
Denis Mc Cormick, our Fundraiser would like to take this opportunity to thank all who turned up and hopes that amongst them those that we see very seldom will start to make a habit of supporting his department in the future.
A Big thank you to Connal and his assistant Linda for all their help, including Rangers Football Club.
AGM and the Colchester Military Festival
Central Scotland Branch have an award scheme, which any member who comes collecting through the year to help collect for the Branch and the PRA, are awarded points. We now have had an increase in our collectors, as a result the Branch will take the top 20 collectors away for the weekend, as this was our first event at the scheme it was decided to combine the weekend with the AGM and the Colchester Military Festival.
14 Members traveled down on the Friday night in the mini bus which was loaned to us from East Gate Church, after arriving at our hotel in the early morning we had time for breakfast then to change in to our gear for the AGM, it was good to see the new set up at Colchester and we found the meeting very informative, towards the end of the meeting our Northern Regional Secretary Alan Burges introduced our fund-raiser Dennis McCormick to come forward to present from the Central Scotland Branch a cheque for the sum of £1,000.00, collected at Glasgow Central Station, this was accepted with thanks from Maj Gen J D Shaw,CBE, Colonel Commandant of the Regiment.
After the meeting we all climbed onto the bus and headed for the Festival, with the weather on our side for a change, we headed out to various stalls and events, meeting with friends and some meeting with their sons who were actualy serving in the Regiment. As usual the compass that we were supplied with, showed true North to the beer tent.
After some tea and coffee, we again ventured around the Festival and watched the display from the boys performing various maneuvers from the choppers and on the ground, we were very impressed with the whole event and the organization which only proves that the Paras are “simply the best”.
Graham Conquer
Our branch had a new member last month, Graham Conquer, Graham served with 2 Para he joined in 1998 until 2002, serving in Afghanistan, he is now the subject of a BBC Documentary they have filmed Graham for several weeks from his present home in Cardonald on to his membership into the Central Scotland Branch PRA.
At our branch meeting Graham was presented with a beret & cap badge along with a blazer badge, and branch tie, these were presented to him by our more senior members Bill Gordon, Bert Stone & Davie Murphy who presented Graham with his PRA & Branch membership cards.
The following Tuesday the camera crew met Graham, Frank Cameron, Terry McCourt & Jim Colquhoun outside Slaters menswear in Glasgow. The manager and staff helped sort out our new member with a new blazer, shirt, and shoes, and the management were very kind in giving us a great discount our thanks to all the management and staff for their support.
We were invited to attend Veterans day in Stirling on Saturday 20th June, where Veterans and serving men and women paraded from the town centre of Stirling to Kings Park, where at the magnificent backdrop of Stirling Castle members of the Parade were presented with their Veterans badge, this included Graham who in his new gear looked very smart and did our branch and the PRA proud.
Clydebank Phoenix
5K run / 1 Mile walk in Aid of COMBAT STRESS
On Saturday 7th March 2009 approximately 160 runners took part in a 5K run / 1 Mile walk in Aid of COMBAT STRESS in Glasgow Green, organized by John Henderson who was ably assisted by some friends, including Mrs Rose Gentle and Susan Archibald, who is an International Disabled Activist, to name but a few.
Rose's son Gordon who served with the Royal Highland fusiliers was killed by a roadside bomb in Basra on 28th June 2004, aged 19.
12 Members of the Central Scotland Branch of the Parachute Regimental Association acted as marshals on the day, led by our WW2 Veteran Bert Stone (Casanova), who also presented the winners with their spoils. Our Branch president Colonel Bobby Steele actually took part in the race as did Billy Mc Gregor. All bets were settled after the event when it was proved Bobby had in fact beaten Billy to the finishing line. Just goes to show, AGE IS NO BARRIER!!
Everyone is already looking forward to next year.
Gateshead Armistice Parade
Cllr Joe Mitchinson Deputy Mayor, Jen Mitchinson Deputy Mayoress, Cllr Maureen Chaplin Worshipful Mayor of Gateshead,
with Consort Bob Chaplin ( husband ). The parade Marshall on the day was Maj Bob Allen.
Blair Thistle Football Club
At the end of last year Members of the Central Scotland Branch of The Parachute Regimental Association, based in Glasgow were approached by the management team of Blair Thistle Football Club (Under 11's- Mark Wallace and Jimmy Havelin) seeking sponsorship for their club.
We are keen to report that with the help of the Management, Staff and Customers of the Lincoln Inn and the neighbours of the area in Knightswood, a grand sum of Fourhundred pounds was raised to go to this worthy cause.
A Cheque was presented to Mark and Jimmy by the Secretary of the Central Scotland Branch PRA (Terry Mc Court) and a trusted supporter from the Royal Engineers - Ralph Murphy, before e recent match. The kids are seen wearing a new weather proof jacket and all have a football now of their own to practice with.
They must have been impressed as we were as they went on to win
their game 7-5
Poppy Scotland Night
On the 15th March some members from our branch attended a fund-raiser night organized by Poppy Scotland for Poppy Scotland.
The evening was held in the Barrowland Ballroom where everything was decked out in 1940s style, with a big the band playing and various dance troupes to entertain, it was a fantastic night, at the interval we were served our rations of food and had some time for a chat, this was the ideal time for our long time member Bert Stone who went on to the stage to present Poppy Scotland with a cheque from our Branch to the tune of £2,000.00, which was very well recieved by Poppy Scotland and all the guests, Bert then spent a good deal of his time getting his picture taken with most of the younger generation, it was a great night and it all went to a great cause, well done to Poppy Scotland staff and to the branch for this generous donation. Pictures below
Parachute Regimental Association Branch Awards
A presentation by the branch to a total of 8 members for services to the branch over the years, this was the Royal Cornwall Medal and the awards went to, Terry McCourt, Sammy Moynihan, Jim Colquhoun, Bert Stone, Sam Brown, Bobby Esplin, Ken Primrose, Bill Gordon.
Bill Gordon receiving the award
Bert Stone receiving the award
Presenting Peter Morrison ex-15 Para, with a branch plaque for the new premises, for their hospitality. We are now settling in just fine and we thank the Committee and staff for their support.
Bill and Christine who served us for many years at our old venue the RAFA Club, Bill was presented with a silver statue of Pegasus with an engraving thanking him for all his goog work, and Christine was presented with an engraved Crystal vase and bouquet of flowers for a hard job in keeping us toped up at every meeting, the Committee and every member of our branch thank you both.
St Michael Parade with the French Airborne
|
