Suffolk Regiment in Cyprus
“Old Boys” Christmas Reunion
By Margaret Sheard…
The lads who served with the Suffolk Regiment in Cyprus in 1958/59 still try and get together as often as they can at reunions through the year and Christmas is one of their special times, although sadly they have lost some of their comrades during the last couple of years.
On 6th December, the lads met up at the Rushbrooke Arms in Sicklesmere, Bury St Edmunds for their annual Christmas Reunion and as normal they had plenty of reminiscences to talk about as well as enjoying a lovely lunch together. There was sad note to the gathering with the absence of Ginger Bob Vine who sadly died in August.
Derek Chilvers does so much work in promoting the memory of the Suffolk Regiment time in Cyprus and this is what he has said about their Christmas Reunion. Derek, together with Chris Veness Black, work hard to arrange the Suffolk Regiment reunions and they do a brilliant job.
The reunion was a lovely get together and in attendance were Barbara and Noel King, Jackie and Brian Stock, Chris and Rosie, Mick Burland, Les Andrews, Pat Arbon, Cyril Slinn, Terry Covell and myself. We enjoyed a lovely meal and a drink or two and talked about old times as usual and the inevitable photo albums came out and we had getting on for three happy hours together and then as we left Taff Gillingham the Army Historian turned up so we chatted to him while we all took our turn at paying for our food then it was into our cars shouting our farewells to each other.
Their next reunion is to be in March 2016 (date to be confirmed) which will include the NS6 Skiffle gig which was so successful in 2015, and there will also be another meet up in April 2016.
For the past few years we have met up with Derek Chilvers, Mick Burland and Terry Covell, as well as ex-servicemen from other Regiments, at the Remembrance event at the Old British Cemetery in Kyrenia in November. It is lovely to meet up with them in person and spend time with them and it would also be great if more of the Cyprus veterans were able to make the journey to Cyprus in future years.
A Happy Christmas and a Happy New Year to Derek, Chris and all the “lads” of the Suffolk Regiment in Cyprus 1958/59.
Many grateful thanks for getting this report out for us Margaret as you have now well and truly found out how much these reunions mean to us lads and as we are all getting older and more fragile and as in our army days not knowing what was round the next corner made us value every day. I sincerely hope there will be many more to come but whatever life has in store for us we have left a great mark in our history by doing our best so I will now take the chance to say thanks to all the lads for their help.
Thank you for your kind words Derek, I really enjoy writing about you guys and look forward to many more reviews of your reunions.