Rhodesian Light
Infantry Regimental
Association
UK Branch Newsletter
AUGUST 2007
To you all,I would like to thank you all who have responded to my invitation to hold a Reunion and form a UK Branch of RLI Regimental Association. These have been both encouraging and creative!!
To date I have a mailing list of 80 Registered ex RLI members here in the UK and 22 of these definitely interested in the Reunion in February 2008. I shall send out monthly reminders to get an idea of the required numbers for catering!! Please spread the word as we can’t let Australia and South Africa steal a march on us !! This is not cricket!
The date I propose for this Reunion is Saturday, 9th February, 2008.The venue is the RAFA Club, Bedford, easily accessible from Luton Airport, having good rail and bus links and also between A1 and M1 roads. The club itself has plenty of car parking space and is just across the road from the railway station and a short walk from the bus terminus. There are two reasonable hotels nearby, The Shakespeare Hotel, tel: 01234 213147, walking distance www.shakespearehotel.com or info@shakespearehotel.com and Travelodge Bedford Hotel tel: 0871 984 6276, Fax 01234 270908 a short taxi ride away. The club is open from 11am and I shall be there to set up for our meeting at midday although the scheduled start time will be 2 pm.
Tea and sandwiches will be available on arrival as well as a pay bar, and our first hour will be taken up with the formal business of electing our Branch committee i.e. a chairman and secretary etc votes according to membership as follows:
Full member =2 votes ex RLI folks
Associate- relatives of deceased RLI folks = 1 vote, Honorary- no connection to RLI but wish to be associated with same = no vote.
A properly constituted branch requires a minimum of 8 members! A cold buffet will be available at 5pm, thereafter let battle commence! I anticipate the cost per head no more than £12.
Shaun Ryan, is our representative on the Executive Committee, whose task is to look into the welfare of the Troopie Statue. This is broken just above the ankles and is housed with the Regimental Colours in the British Empire and Colonial Museum ( BECM) in Bristol. Shaun is a practising lawyer and well equipped to deal with the problems of who will pay and repair the statue on our behalf.
Simon McIlwaine has found and can recommend a supplier of embroidered RLI polo shirts, who seems fairly reasonable, their website and business page :http//www.lynelbys.co.uk/Aboutuspage.htm.
A few of you are asking regarding photographs of the Saints launch, please check the website www.therli.com
Also Chris Cocks publishing company, www.30degreessouth.co.za will be bringing out a DVD.
From Alex Binda,
Hi Guys, had to share to this one with you all. The "Saints" was written for ouens like Gerry and his family, his email makes it all worthwhile ! Cheers Alex.
Hi Alex,
Well done on an excellent book, long overdue. My son and I assemble a Rhodesia library, and to date have all the main “definitive “ books on the BSAP, the Scouts, SAS, Pride of Eagles, also the book Contact, a limited edition of Badcocks’s Shadows of War, Ian Smith’s Great Betrayal (signed) etc and many other books relating to the country of my birth. Your book is arguably the best in our growing collection, but my opinion would be very biased in that I am one of four brothers who all had a connection with the RLI
My oldest brother Adriaan joined the RLI as a boy soldier in1966 and is listed in your book as a recipient in 1975 of the Non-Operational MFC. He was initially with 1Cdo and I remember him telling us of his participation in Op Cauldron in1968, including the death of Tpr Thornley towards the end of that operation. In August 1978 he went on a Para course in Bloemfontein to get his wings, he ended up sergeant in MT and is now living in Lydenburg RSA, having left Zim 1984.
My second eldest brother, Daniel joined a few years later and was corporal in 2Cdo.He also spent some time in the RP. He loved the army, and had an excellent collection of photos from the border patrol days. A few of these photos had been taken by Scope magazine and included in one of their many articles on the Rhodesian war, he is pictured at the rear of a stick, carrying an MAG. Unfortunately all these photos were lost as he was tragically killed in 19999 in a hit and run car accident two months before we left Zim for the UK, and I don’t know what his estranged wife would have done with them-such an important and exciting part of our lives lost!
My third eldest brother, Jo’ did his national service with RLI in 1974/1975.Their training officer was the decorated WO Ed Fouche. Jo subsequently on RR call-up, was seriously wounded in a post contact sweep in Kandeya, Mt Darwin in 1977- his failed night time casevac from Karanda Mission is mentioned in Beryl Salt’s Pride of Eagles. He was eventually casevaced by road to Andrew Fleming, where the medical staff successfully patched up his severely perforated abdomen, compliments of a stick grenade.
Upon leaving school in 1974, I joined Intaf with the naïve view to making a career out of it, including government University sponsorship. This did mean that my that my National service training in1976 would be in-house, but I was not to know , until debussing at the Intaf training facility at Chikurubi, that our whole team of training officers were fresh from RLI, prior to their secondment to Guard Force. The team was headed by one Robin Tarr (ex RSM, RLI), Terry Wilde (ex WO, RLI ) and two ex RLI corporals, one being Paddy Gallacher, a ruthless, hard man who scared us shitless. Don’t let anyone say that Intake 4 (NS 150 ) had it easy !!
Ron Reid-Daly indicated in his book on the Scouts that he was looking at something similar on the RLI, so my son and I, in our surfing for Rhodesiana, have always been on the lookout for that RLI bible .Thank you for not only filling the gap, but also for doing so in such a professional manner- the memories keep flooding back.
Kind regards,
Gerry van Tonder, Derby, England
Any other news gratefully received or suggestions!!
My address :
Martyn Hudson
"Corner view"
School Lane
Bolnhurst
Bedfordshire
MK44 2EN
TEL : 01234 376712
Mobile: 07788788095
Cheers
Martyn