NATIONAL BEST KEPT WAR MEMORIAL 2023 WINNERS 

It is with great delight that we can announce that the efforts of the branch have been recognised nationally as well as locally in the Best Kept War memorial Having already won the Highlands and Islands area Best Kept War Memorial for the Small Memorial without a garden category we were entered into the National competition.

   After many years of some great efforts and dedication the memorial over time has gone from being a good memorial to a fantastic memorial with ongoing work being carried out by dedicated members of the Branch and others who have assisted in some way with the efforts to get the memorial to a higher standard that the Town and surrounding area can be rightly proud of, those include The Highland Council, The Garden Stop on the Blar for the Flowers and decorative stones, Fort William Town Team, The Alexandra Hotel for the coffee and tea.  

  We would like to thank all members for the help and encouragement that you give to the volunteers.  Having picked up the certificate for the Highlands and Islands area award towards the end of last month the judges were so impressed with all the entries for the BKWM and explained how hard it is to decide which memorial should win as they are alll of such a high standard now, it really does come down to the finer details that allow them to pick a winner for the different categories 

HIGHLANDS AND ISLANDS AREA BEST KEPT WAR MEMORIAL

                                               2023

Once again the efforts of Branch members, staff of the Highland council, Fort William Town Team, The Garden Stop on the Blar has paid off with the War Memorial at the Parade in Fort William receiving a high mark in this years BKWM and going forward to be judged in the National BKWM    There are different categories and our memorial is in the Small communities without a garden category.  

Highlands & Islands Best Kept War Memorial 2023 entry

  Another super effort put in by members on Saturday the 10th of June in preperation for this years BKWM 2023. With a special Thanks to the following James Kennedy of Fort William Town Team for attending with the pressure washer and bowser and his time, The Highland Council for the paint and brushes, The Strathmore Alexandra Hotel for the coffee and teas, The Gardenstop  on the Blar for supplying the flowers for the planters, and the Branch Members for the weekends work.

  The next works party will be on Saturday 1st Of July at 1100hrs Please do come along even if you are only wanting to get a catch up with other memebers for a Blether. 

Service Not Self

With the ongoing events of Covid19 How pleasing it is to see so much getting done. From prescriptions, shopping, phonecalls, and with the technology availble in this day even real time face to face meetings with the committee and members regurarly keeping in touch through the internet. With so much getting done to try and make sure that all our veterans are able to maintain a safer living during this lockdown, We must say a massive thanks to everyone who has been donating food and with packaging items to allow as safe as possible means of delivery. 

On Sunday 8^th March members of the branch gathered in Inverness to assist Martin Glenesk in his attempt to compete in the Inverness 5k Challenge. To enable him to do this Maria Devey; Jeanette Lane; Shona Macinnes; Susan Macinnes and Gaynor Weldon stepped forward to push his wheelchair around the course.

Also competing in the wheelchair class was Stuart Gallacher who propelled himself in a fantastic time of just over nineteen minutes. Plus, at the age of 74, Bruce James ran the 5k course.

Tony Weldon, who has done this race before, entered the half marathon and completed it in 2hrs and 40 minutes. He admitted that this was not his best time and wondered if it was time to hang up his trainers?

Everyone from the branch thoroughly enjoyed the event and the cheers and applause from the crowd as Martin and the ladies entered the arena with the Legion Scotland flag flying were amazing.

They completed their lap of the stadium with Martin getting out of his wheelchair and walking across the finish line with the public address system telling the crowd what this challenge was all about and reminding everyone what a fantastic job the Legion does for veterans.

Other than the personal sense of achievement that all had, the event raised £180 in sponsorship through a “Just Giving” page.

As a Branch, we are currently trying to raise funds to allow us to purchase two memorial benches that will be installed adjacent to the Fort William War Memorial. The aim being to provide somewhere that people can quietly sit and reflect on those who paid the ultimate sacrifice in the service of their country.

The first bench will be semi circular in design and will pay homage to those who fell during WW1 (see picture left). The second bench will be oblong in design and will pay homage to those who fell during WW2 (see picture below right).

The total cost for both benches is £2200.00 which we hope to raise through a combination of grants and sponsorship but we have a long way to go.

Therefore, if you would like to make a donation to this project you may do so by simply sending a cheque made payeable to: FORT WILLIAM & DISTRICT BRANCH RBLS to our Secretary at Fort William & District Branch RBLS, Rock Cottage, 2 Stronaba, Spean Bridge, PH34 4DX.

On Saturday 07 July the Branch held a Comradeship Event that was based upon a white water rafting experience. The event was funded by donations from: RBLS HQ; H&I Area; the Branch and personnal contributions. Over 30 people attended the event and the staff of Active High must have wondered what they were in for when a coach full of pirates decended upon them.

After some initial trepidation, all agreed that it had been an incredible experience that they would not have wanted to miss.

Miraculously not a single member fell into the river, although one or two came perilously close to doing so and many swallowed more of the river Garry than they had wanted to.

Although this event may not appeal to everyone, our group consisted of one member in his 70's and a family member under twelve. Two of our less able members also participated and both agreed that this experience had been a great tonic for them.

It was good to see that by the start of the second run all of the initial nerves had gone and much high jynx ensued on the way down the river.

James Porter is to be congratulated for organising, what was without a doubt a superb event, as do the staff of Active High whose professionalism and skill was a pleasure to see.

Today, Mon 11 Jun 2018, members of the Branch assisted Julian Jackson in his quest to walk from Lands End to John O'Groats in order to raise awareness, and promote, the wonders of eye research. This is an incredible feat given that Julian himself is blind and we were honoured to do what we could to guide him through Fort William and along the Great Glen Way to South Laggan.

The chosen route took in: the Soldiers Bridge across the River Lochy; Neptunes Staircase on the Caledonian Canal; along the Tow Path to Gairlochy; then past Achnacarry and on to Clunes. The final leg was from Clunes to the Lock at South Laggan and ended at the South Laggan Swing Bridge.

A big thank you has to go to Bruce James who acted as Julian's guide from Fort William to Clunes and to Tony Weldon who acted as the guide from Clunes to South Laggan and also completed the entire 21 mile distance.

We all wish Julian well and may he have favourable winds and calm seas for his onward journey.

Anyone who wishes to know more about Julian and his quest can do so by visiting his website at: https://bigblindwalk.com/

The Branch Christmas Party was held at the Ben Nevis Hotel on Saturday 16 December 2017 with a total of 61 Members, Family & Friends sitting down to dinner. We were also honoured to have our National Chairman Charlie Brown and his wife,

plus our CEO Kevin Gray and his wife joining us. 

As usual the meal was excellent and was praised by several members; entertainment was provided by "Mardi Gras Music" and many people took the opportunity to get up and shake a leg especially for the Conga and Strip the Willow.

The raffle was well supported and we must thank everyone who so generously donated prizes for it. Well done to all that won a prize and commiserations to those that didn't.

A great start to the festive season and hopefully we can all look forward to it being repeated in 2018, watch this space.

For more images of the party visit the Photo Gallery.

On Saturday 12th August 2017 eight members of the branch visited the "Amazing Ages" event that was held at Fort George. The event had a variety of living displays and re-enactments covering all periods of Scottish history from Medieval; Renaissance; Jacobite and Edwardian eras plus displays from the Roman; Pict; Viking; Napoleonic and WW1 & WW2 periods.

During the visit members also took the opportunity to visit the Highlanders museum which was highly enlightening and brought to life by our tour guide Dave.

All agreed it had been an enjoyable day and that once again it had been good for members to get together in this manner. However, for many, the day was truly rounded off by being able to observe the Dolphins swimming off the point of the fort.

For more images visit the Photo Gallery.

In order to mark the 62^nd anniversary of the death of the Revd David Railton MC MA, members of the Fort William & District Branch of the Royal British Legion Scotland gathered at St Brides Church, Onich, North Ballachulish on Saturday 10 June 2017 for a memorial service.

The name of Revd David will not instantly mean a lot to many people until it is pointed out that it was he that thought of the idea of having a Tomb for an Unknown Warrior in Westminster Abbey that could be used to recognise the sacrifice of all those who died and were buried as unknown during the First World War; and so, on the anniversary of his death it was only right and fitting that we pay homage to him.

The event was organised by Bruce James and 12 Branch Members were present; our ranks were swollen by Kevin Gray, the CEO of Legion Scotland, and his wife; plus Major Janet McIntyre and Margaret Rae from the Salvation Army in Kinlochleven. Their presence was particularly poignant as David Railton’s father had been the Second in Command to William Booth who founded the Salvation Army.

For the memorial service all parties formed up in front of the grave and after a brief introduction from Kevin Lane, the Branch Chairman, Binions Lines were read out. Piper John MacCallum then played a lament during which the Branch Standard, carried by Drew Walker-Armitage, was lowered in homage. After a two minute silence a second lament was played; followed by Kevin Lane laying a wreath on behalf of the Branch. The Revd Malcolm Kinnear then led the Branch in the service of remembrance and prayers during which Bruce James read out a eulogy to David Railton.

The service ended with everyone visiting the inside of St Brides Church and then retiring to the Loch Leven Hotel for lunch.

All agreed that this had been a fitting tribute to a great man and that we must now perpetuate his memory so that he is not left forgotten again.

Today, Saturday 21 May, members of the branch turned out in order to clean the Fort William War Memorial in preparation for the RBLS 2017 Best Kept Competition. In the H&I Area Competition the memorial has won best in its category for the last two years but has always been marked down in the National Competition due to mildew on the statue itself. It was therefore decided that because it was three years since it was last cleaned that this year we would do it.

David Brady volunteered to head the project and after meetings with the Council Works Department and the Fort William Town Team a plan was put forward that met all the necessary health and safety requirements and was therefore acceptable to all concerned for us to carry out the work.

The task took 3 hours to complete but could not have been achieved without the willing support of all those who turned out on the day.

Special thanks must go to Campbell Plant Hire for the loan of the Elevated Work Platform (EWP), the Garden Stop for their very kind donation of white chipped granite stones to the Town Team for the work that they will now complete on the floral displays, to Dean Kennedy and his work party for the loan of the pressure washer and Callum Ross, who is not a branch member, but freely gave of his time to support us and who operated the EWP and physically cleaned the statue.

The memorial now looks magnificent and further plans are being made to improve it even further.

Well done to all concerned!                          (Further photos can be seen in the Photo Gallery)

Oh we've done it again! Yet again the branch has been selected as being the most progressive branch without a club in the H&I Area and this has been recognised by us being awarded the AR Henderson Trophy for the sixth time.

This is a great accolade for the branch and justly reflects all of the effort put in by people over the last year. You know who you are so well done to all of you.

The photo shows Hugh Macinnes receiving the Trophy and Certificate from Eric Munroe the H&I Area President.

On Saturday 18th March 2017 the Branch was allowed to hold a bag packing fund raising event in Morrisson's store in Fort William. There was a good turnout from the Branch members who quickly got into the swing of things as the store became busier throughout the day.

Through the cheerful dedication of those attending, and the generosity of the people of Lochaber, we were able to raise the sum of £1280.80 which goes a long way to enabling us to meet the target that we need in order to continue our work supporting veterans.

Many thanks to all who were able to help out and a special thank you to Morrisson's for allowing us in to do this ( more photos of the event have been uploaded to the Photo Gallery).