Legion lunch has sweet taste of success

A CHRISTMAS lunch for members of the Royal British Legion in Henley welcomed almost twice as many guests as in previous years.

More than 60 members of the Henley branch gathered for Christmas dinner at the Menza Café at Henley Rugby Club on Monday and a quiz.

The branch continues to buck the national trend with growing members, adding
16 since October last year.

Chairman Richard Pinches welcomed the group and paid tribute to member Rhodri Williams, who died last week aged 79.

He said: “Thank you all for coming. I would like to thank my lovely committee for being so fantastic and supporting me during the year.

“I would like to thank Ania, Karen, Mollie and Kathy, for helping with all of the monthly lunches and especially for today.

“I would also like to thank Darby and his crew for the wonderful meals which we have during the monthly meetings and also our fantastic Christmas meal.

“I would like to spare a thought for one of our members, who we sadly lost last week, Rhodri Williams.”

He then asked the members to be upstanding as he recited For the Fallen by Laurence Binyon. Karen Grieve, event organiser at the branch, organises all meetings throughout the year including the Christmas lunch.

She said: “A couple of other ladies on the committee help me on the day but every month we meet and we have a speaker and a lunch here.

“We have 60 people today — we haven’t had anywhere near this before, it’s usually 35, so word has come out and it is building.

“We’ve had a few new members come lately and today we’ve got one or two new members. We are putting ourselves out there a bit more. I think the problem is a lot of people envision for the Royal British Legion you have to be ex-Services to join but you don’t.”

Henley resident John Todd attended with his wife, Pam.

Mr Todd, who has been a member of the Royal British Legion for three years, said: “It’s a nice gathering and the meal was nice. I must say, over the years of catering, the service has improved.

“Pam doesn’t come with me to the regular meetings, just the Christmas meal. As you get older, you don’t get invited to too many dos. This is one of our only dos, I think, but we look forward to it.”

Dave Eggleton, who sits on the town council, said while the growing membership was good, it was important to engage young people with the work of the Legion.

He said: “It’s nice to have all of these people here to support the Royal British Legion. They [veterans] gave up their freedom and their time to give us a better life. I enjoy listening to the stories that people tell and just being together on whatever occasion — they have quite a few of these throughout the year. I’ve been to about three speeches this year.

“We’re the older generation and we need this to carry on for the younger generation.

“I think it goes out to the schools, and, especially since Richard has taken over, we do see a lot more cadets and that getting involved in it and it’s very important that the young get involved in hearing these stories. There aren’t many young people here and that’s who we want to engage, to get more young people here.”

Geoff Walsh, who is also chairman of Henley Freemasons, said people in the town had a strong sense of civic duty and it was reflected in engagement with the Legion.

He said: “Henley is bucking the trend of less and less interest in the Legion throughout the country. In Henley, it’s thriving.

“The Poppy Appeal here is one of the most popular and raises more money than most other places in the UK.”