BRANCH AWARDED THE RBL McCRAE SHIELD
AND ATTENDANCE AT THE COMMEMORATION OF THE ALLIED INVASION OF NORMANDY

At 13h00 on the 5th June, at the Memorial de Caen, The Royal British Legion Central Brittany Branch was presented with the McCrae Shield (Recruiting Overseas Branches). The presentation was made by Edward W Hefferman MBE, Overseas Trustee. In beautiful sunny weather he handed the McCrae Shield to branch President, Maj Gen Graham Hollands (Rtd), who then handed it to Chairman Rodney Curtis. Jimmy Rowe carried the branch standard which, later that day, he carried at the ceremony for the 3rd Infantry Division (in a temperature of 31 degrees).

At the presentation, it was a great honour to have a small detachment from the 3rd Infantry Division in attendance for the ceremony. Also present were the national padre, and the chairman of The Royal British Legion Somme branch, who was the parade marshal for the Fromelles Ceremony on the 30th January, and will be on 19th July for the last internment in the new Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery. Branch officers would like to thank all the members from the Central Brittany and Somme branches, as well as the others, who attended the presentation.
Chairman Rodney Curtis said: “I wish to thank the committee and all of our members for their help in winning the McCrae Shield and hope we can continue our successes.” The McCrae Shield will be at the next branch social meeting on 6th July.

While the branch presentation party was in Normandy to commemorate the Allied invasion, 4th to 8th June, the standard was paraded by Jimmy Rowe on a further 18 occasions. At one of these, the German military attaché was present, as last year, when he spoke in faultless English and French thanking us for liberating his country from the Nazis. This year he added his personal thanks to the Parachute Brigade, who liberated his father from a concentration camp.

As always in Normandy, branch officers were made extremely welcome everywhere they went, especially in Sannerville and Beuzeville, where they were given books about the liberation and the more recent history, as well as an excellent lunch.
During the many ceremonies, wonderful music was provided by a number of different bands, some of which included very young and proud children ranging from about three years old. Most of the ceremonies were attended by children too.