Brigade
May 2012
Going Digital Welcome to the new online edition of The Brigade’s news magazine. Brigade will be issued to all whose email address is lodged at NHQ as well as being posted on the CLCGB Facebook page. For those who require a hard copy, please make sure that someone in your company has the facility print off copies as needed. The photo header this time is of a CLCGB parade in Durham, which includes Des Carter, whose tribute appears on page 2/3. At the National Band Competition at Hinckley, a new Des Carter Trophy was awarded to the winner of the Novices Competition. Thanks to Rob Bolton for the photo.
In a tightly fought competition which saw an increase in the number of bands competing, St. Andrew’s, New Earswick won the overall trophy. Videos of theirs and other performances are being added to the Facebook page. Well done to all who took part - it was a great day. Thanks to a generous supporter, we have been able to commission a Jubilee Badge to distribute to all companies free of charge. We have ordered enough badges for every member, officer and
The online magazine of the Church Lads’ & Church Girls’ Brigade
helper. We will assume that your numbers are as for your
last Annual Returns, but if you have increased your numbers since then, please let Zoe know at NHQ. We will be dispatching them as soon as they arrive - hopefully at the end of May. Have a look at the photos on page 4 and the stories behind them. More photos are in a gallery on the Facebook page. Send in your photos and we will post them too. Enjoy!
Inside this issue: Tribute to Des Carter - National Band Competition - Leicester Regimental Parade - Medals for the troops! - And Badges for the Jubilee
Brigade May 2012
Page 2
Des Carter MBE 1925 - 2012: It was with great sadness that the Brigade received the news that one of its great stalwarts, Des Carter MBE, had passed away in hospital in the early hours of Monday 12th April 2012. His family were at his bedside. Des was aged 86. This tribute is largely based upon Des’s own words when asked to introduce himself in the Brigade Association’s Link Newsletter following his appointment as National Honorary Chairman of the Association in 1999. Typical of Des’s humour, he began “I was born very young: in Benwell on the steep, steep banks of the Tyne on 26th May 1925. My father was Charge Electrician at the L.N.E.R locomotive depot and sidings at Blaydon – hence the phrase “IN LOCO PARENTIS” ... “Does your father work on the railway?” When I was four years old, we moved to Blaydon so my father could be near his work.” Des joined the Junior Training Corps at St Cuthbert’s company of the Church Lads’ Brigade when he was ten years old – as he said himself ...“I joined FOREVER – I suppose it has been my life ever since.” As a teenager at the outbreak of the 2nd World War Des became a student apprentice at the Clarke Chapman engineering works in Gateshead and as such was exempt from military service until the end of the war. With many adult CLB members having joined the services he and other teenagers did their best to carry on the work of the Brigade but they were also engaged with fire-watching to protect the church and the church hall. When aged 17 Des joined the Home Guard. In 1946, aged 21, Des was called up for National Service and eventually posted to Palestine with the Royal Engineers as part of the 6th Airborne Division. This must have been a traumatic
A Tribute by Maynard Scott
experience for the young Des. Under the old League of Nations, Great Britain had been issued with a Mandate in 1926 to administer Palestine but after the Second World War, Jewish attempts to establish the State of Israel created turmoil with the resident Arabs. Terrorist groups such as Irgun Zvai Leumi (IZL); the Stern Gang and Hagana turned on our British soldiers who were merely trying to keep the peace. The British Government eventually pulled the troops out in 1948 but not before many of Des’s RE pals had been murdered by the warring factions. Des served a full three years in this campaign, a chapter of his life that he would never forget. Years later he joined the Palestine Pals Association and in 2007 he visited the new Armed Forces Memorial in Staffordshire to see listed on the walls of the memorial the names of 14 of his RE comrades who never returned. Following demob, Des became a junior draughtsman with Vickers Armstrong in Newcastle. Returning to the Brigade he discovered that the CO of his old Blaydon Company had retired and left the area. The rector invited Des to take over the company and at the same time he invited Jean, whom he had know from school, to take over the Church Girls’ Brigade company. Both sections flourished and so apparently did love between the two commanding officers. We all
thought that the two Brigades didn’t amalgamate until 1978 but it now seems that in Blaydon they managed that memorable event much earlier! Jean and Des were married in September 1951. Their three children, Dave ,Helen and Alan would all join the Brigade when they were old enough. Soon after Dave was born Des joined Pirelli Construction Company as a draughtsman and began working on Power Stations around the country. This often involved working away from home but Des said it gave him opportunity to see how the Brigade operated in other parts of the UK. In Manchester he met Don Nuttall for the first time and had a spell helping St. John’s Old Trafford CLB. He later visited Leeds and Driffield where he worked with St Mary’s Beverley Company and at Grimsby with Littlecoats Company. When Pirelli offered him promotion as an area engineer in South Wales Des accepted the offer. The Family had to leave their much loved company in Blaydon but about the time they moved to Tintern in the mid 1960s the Brigade had published the Bishop of Exeter’s Report with a view to improving the Brigade. Subsequent to that the Brigade created a new post – that of a National Director of Training and appointed the late Ken Mathers, a professional youth worker with far reaching ideas. Shortly afterwards Ken enlisted Des as his Regional Assistant to cover Bristol, the South West and South Wales. Des learnt a great deal about Youth Work from Ken Mathers and so did his son Dave who by this time was old enough to train as a Junior Leader.
Tribute to Des Carter In 1971 Ken appointed Des in charge of the JTC and to the Spring School Staff at Avon Tyrrel. When Ken Mathers resigned as Director of Training in 1973 this more or less coincided with the news that Pirelli were closing their operations in South Wales and that Des would be caught up in the wave of redundancy that followed. Facing the inevitable, Des had no hesitation in applying for the role that his friend Ken had just vacated and in January 1974 the Brigade Council subsequently appointed Des as the new National Director of Training. Ken Mathers was a hard act to follow but Des did a magnificent job for the next seven years. As a member of NHQ staff in 1978, Des played a full part in the historic amalgamation of the Church Lads’ Brigade with the Church Girls’ Brigade and helped to organise the Royal Review by HM the Queen at Windsor Great Park in 1980. Des’s other son, Alan, also completed his training as a Brigade Junior Leader while his father was Director of Training. Des’s appointment as Director of Training became redundant shortly after the Royal Review in 1980 but having acquired a wealth of experience in Youth Work generally he quickly found a new job in London as a parish Youth Worker. The bonus was that this role was combined with being CO of the local Brigade
Page 3 Company at Roxeth and Harrow so Des was delighted. He was assisted by Jean and he felt that together they did a good job there for the next ten years. 1990
brought an end to his professional career and it was soon afterwards that Des was awarded an M.B.E. for his work with the Church Lads’ and Church Girls’ Brigade. Des returned to Tintern looking forward to what he called “bone idle retirement” but instead was soon advising all within earshot that retirement was a fallacy, a pipe dream, there would be no bone idle retirement for him. Outside Brigade, Des began by directing his considerable energies towards the local community. Before long he had become Church Warden and even a member and clerk to the Tintern Community Council. He
Our Latest MBE
Congratulations to Ann Sankey who was awarded the MBE last year for her services to the Brigade over many years. Ann currently runs the Company at St. David’s in Leicester Regiment as well as being the Training Officer for the Regiment. Ann is also on Brigade Council and is helping with the new online training scheme. In the picture, Ann is showing her medal to Baroness Byford at the Leicester Regimental Parade. Well done Ann, you’re in good company! (Ann shows her ‘gong’ to Baroness Byford)
created time to become a school governor at Llandogo Primary School and as a Lay Reader was often happy to take school assemblies. If that weren’t enough Des took on added responsibility as local Meals on Wheels coordinator often delivering meals to people younger than himself. Despite his wonderful work with the local community Des had joined the Brigade FOREVER. That was his first love – and so he formed the Monmouth Branch of the Brigade Association. Before long, he had become a member of its national committee and in 1999, when he offered to host the AGM at Tintern he was appointed the National Honorary Chairman of the Brigade Association. Probably the most significant decision that he made during his term of office was to encourage the committee in its move towards creating the Brigade Memorial Garden at the National Memorial Arboretum. This was created under his chairmanship in 2002. At his funeral the vicar said that Des “was an ambassador for the Church and the Brigade” - and so he was. Des made us all laugh. He will be sadly missed. Maynard Scott (Deputy Governor)
Jeff’s Action Saves a Life! At the Leicester Regimental Service, Martyn Bedder (Regimental CO) presented Jeff Holder, CO at Hinckley, with the Brigade’s Award for Courage. Jeff acted quickly one morning when passers by spotted a house on fire. Being an action man, Jeff put his boot in the door and managed to bring out an aged occupant from the smoking building. Fire officers later commented that in another ten minutes, they would have been bringing out a body, had Jeff not acted so swiftly and unselfishly. Well done Jeff - you’re a hero!
Photo Gallery An All-Weather Band at the National Band Competition!
Winners All
The Mayor of Hinckley and Bosworth chats with members at the picnic following the Leicester Regimental Parade
Go to www.facebook.com/groups/148321178729/ for more pictures and videos