***CANCELLATIONS - SOME OF THE ROYAL BRITISH LEGION'S EVENTS***

01 April 2020

Grenadiers,

Please read the following from The Royal British Legion:

I thought it appropriate that I keep you abreast of our changing “event” environment which has been created by the advent of the Covid-19 crisis. In short, a number of key commemorative events have had to be called off & my team is now busy following up an initial email to all of the 1100+ affected veterans with an individual phone call. Some of those veterans hoping to participate alongside their contemporaries now live quite solitary lives & I believe that it is important that we help each of them to manage their disappointment as best as we can.

Chronologically, and the largest in terms of scale, the major programme of events linked to VE 75 in Whitehall have now been cancelled as you will no doubt be aware. Similarly, whilst the RBL continues to plan to deliver VJ 75 at the National Memorial Arboretum (NMA) in August, we have had to cancel the related overseas tours. This has caused me particular disappointment as we had managed to develop a series of quite wonderful itineraries for the 50+ veterans that were keen to travel. The fact is that recent developments made the early booking of tour resources impractical & therefore cancellation was the only option. On the positive side, all of the affected veterans will be invited to the NMA event.

We have also had to cancel the Legion’s D-Day 76 event this June in Bayeux and our support to the Korea 70 commemorations in London later in the same month.

It is quite impossible to assess when things may improve as you will understand but I remain confident that, when HMG determine that the UK is back on an even keel, we will be able to dust off these plans & provide the relevant veterans with the quality of events that they so richly deserve.

Yours aye,

Bob

Bob Gamble OBE

Assistant Director for Commemorative Events

Regards,

Sgt Rob Broomes, DipFA, CeMAP, CeRER, CertRP, MLIBF, MCMI
Senior Non-Commissioned Officer
Grenadier Guards Association