Newsletter, Dec 2012

Our Sad Loss

I shall open with the loss of Robert Howell on the 3rd of October and that he passed away in a hospice

Joanna informed me and that I sent out e-mails to shipmates and ladies, I also informed as many as I could by telephone and if I missed anyone I am sorry but in was a hectic time, Roberts funeral was well attended by shipmates and Joanna wrote to me to pass on her best wishes and thank you to all who came and for the cards, Joanna was overwhelmed.

At the wake after the funeral I managed to speak to a couple of ex-Jimmies of the Hermione who attended, also John Talbot Lt first commission to see if he was interested in joining us at future events.

Then I spoke to the Captain who relieved Robert and after a lot of barracking from John Herring , Paul Sheppard and myself . He kindly agreed to join us and become our new chairman, so I have been in contact with him and he has received the information that Robert had which Joanna kindly sent to him.

So shipmates and ladies I would like to introduce Captain Paul Herington to you I shall let you have more information him at a later date, I have informed HRH about the situation and I believe they have written to Joanna.

Robert was our chairman for 16 years and was actually the founder of the association, when he contacted the Charlie Chester show and formed the wartime association it was only when the Hermione paid off that we came into being, Robert joined us at Babbacombe in 1996.


Reunion 2013

Well I have just been in touch with the

Lysses House Hotel,
51 High Street,
Fareham
01329 822622
e-mail: lysses@lysses.co.uk

There are 15 rooms available. Please reserve these for the shipmates who are coming from outside the town, the dates for the reunion in 2013 are over the weekend of the 16th-19th May. I am asking John Herring to speak to the hotel.

The dinner will be on the Saturday and hopefully Joanna will join us with the new chairman.

Just a side note that the Euryalus association folded this year and they had quite a large membership the problem it seems was that getting people to commit to running it then members turning out at events, I would just like to say that although our membership has fallen through shipmates passing we still enjoy a fair turn-out not only that the membership on facebook is actually rising each week

and the shipmates on heroes reunited is over 200 so lets see if we can get them to attend a reunion or at least join us. Finally, If anyone wishes to stand for office please let me know, I shall stand back and wait for the rush ha-ha.


Blackpool 2012

The reunion was held in Blackpool this year following a request which also happened to be the home of the last two secretaries and where the two associa-tions joined up together in 1994 and then held a joint reunion in 1995 when Robert took the chair.

Cenotaph Blackpool



An invitation was sent out to the two secretaries (all though we knew Ron Fleming had passed away some years ago we have always invited his wife to join us). When I received a phone call from Edna Barlow informing us that Maurice had passed two years prior which was quite a shock as I had not been informed and it was on my patch which was quite upsetting.

The Standard


So all in all the weekend was set up for the 70th anniversary of the loss of Hermione and the only survivor to attend was Tom Snow with a couple of abstentions from a couple of the older boys.

On the Saturday the 16th June we held a service at the towns cenotaph in which the standard was paraded and a short service was held by the local canon, at the end of the service Tom Snow laid a wreath on behalf of the association, it was a nice occasion only spoiled by the weather, and we had a few onlookers who joined in the service, Lucy has taken a load of photographs of the event so if you wish to see them you can log on to the website, www.hmshermione.co.uk.

We held the dinner at the Colwyn Hotel and later socialized till the small hours and it seems to be getting earlier and earlier ha-ha, We raised over £200.00 for the raffle which included a couple of donation prizes from HELP THE HEROES charity.

At the AGM it was proposed that we make a donation to Pembroke House to have a brick paver laid on behalf of the association and it was discussed that from next year we shall start to lay ones for members who have formed the association, if you wish to add comment to this please contact me so we can raise this for the next reunion, Also we have donated a sum of money to the Vernon Memorial again after a discussion that amount was raised so Trevor Knight has handed the money over to John Herring on behalf of RNBT.

As Robert was not well enough to travel and he so wanted to see Blackpool ( it must have been the scot in him ) Scottish joke! it was decided that we hold it down south so Robert would be able to attend but circumstances changed that but we are still going ahead with that and the reunion will be held in Fareham.

At the AGM Robert asked me to read out a letter stating that due to his ill health that he was stepping down as chairman and that he had explored several avenues as to who might succeed him and he was not getting any help from his contempories and so up stepped Sonny Evans who said that he would shoulder the chair although not in the best of health he would do it to relieve the pressure on Robert so on Behalf of the association Sonny thank you.

Anyway after the letter was read out the membership agreed that Robert should become Vice -President and when I told him he was very pleased and asked me to pass on his thanks to the members.

Thanks shipmates. I would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year…

Yours aye,
Steve Brotherton

Click on any picture to zoom in. Or to view the gallery from the 2012 reuinion, please click here.


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Comments

Newsletter, Dec 2012 — 1 Comment

  1. I have just found the Associations web site to be meet with the sad news of Cmd Howells passing i am sure he will be missed by many.I served under him from 83 to 86 and i now intend to follow the site from now on.Calm seas and fair winds to all.

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