UK: Royal Marines Celebrate Their Association

Hundreds of Royal Marines Association members paraded at Commando Training Centre Royal Marines on Sunday as part of their annual reunion weekend.

The reunion was an opportunity for veterans and their families, who had gathered from all over Britain to mix with their old comrades. It also gave them a chance to meet the newest recruits at Lympstone and see the latest military hardware.

The parade was the culmination of a weekend where the veterans were able to take part in a range of activities including shooting the latest assault rifles and watching a Royal Marines Band concert.

During the parade the Royal Marines Association members were inspected by the Commandant General Royal Marines (CGRM) Maj General Ed Davis CBE. Following this they marched past CGRM – some in wheel chairs, some with guide dogs.

With the veterans on parade were three Recruit Troops, the Young Officer trainees and the Royal Marines Band. The veterans’ span of combat operations cover every conflict that Britain was involved with from World War 2 to Afghanistan.

At the end of the parade the families of Royal Marines who have died during the last year lay wreaths at a Memorial Wall next to the parade square.

“It’s funny because as a young Marine I spent most of my time trying to avoid parades,”

said L/Cpl Brian Beniston from Lincolnshire.

“Now the irony is I’m volunteering to be on one.

“It’s a great chance to meet old friends from around the Corps,”

added Brian who was at Limbang in Borneo in 1962 which was the scene of a famous Commando raid.

“The training now is the same but the equipment is completely different. The weapons we had when I joined up are in museums now. I passed out of training in 1947 and immediately joined HMS Indomitable,”

said Bill Harris who was at the weekend with his old comrade Peter Reading.

“I then joined HMS Liverpool before transferring to HMS Ocean and was involved in the EKOA Crisis in Cyprus in 1956 attached to 45 Commando. Eventually I was medically discharged and given a weekly pension of 12 shillings.”

“There’s no change with lads now as when I was in, they’re just as grumpy these days,

said Brian Lunt from Frodsham in Cheshire. Brian served from 1962-1972 and was involved in the Aden conflict.

Alan Edghill from West London who served from 1974-1986 said,

“I love coming back here,I like the brotherhood and comradeship. I started coming to these events when I was 50.

“This weekend’s annual gathering of the RMA sits at the heart of the Commando Training Centre’s calendar year,”

says Col Dave Kassapian, the Commandant at CTCRM.

“It reinforces all that is good about the Royal Marines family, ensuring that comrade-in-arms stay in touch, and that all veterans and their families have the chance to return to the Alma Mater of the Corps.

“Standing alongside Recruits and Young Officers on the Parade Square and at the bar, it confirms our mantra of ‘Once a Marine, always a Marine.’”

[mappress]
Press Release, October 02, 2013; Image: Royal Navy