MINUTES OF THE 31st ANNUAL
GENERAL MEETING
of the
LANGELEBEN REUNION ASSOCIATION
held on
FRIDAY 28 JUNE 2024
at
QUORN GRANGE HOTEL,
LOUGHBOROUGH
President: Tim Inshaw CB
Stand-in Chairman: Steven Farmer
Vaughan
Membership Secretary: Charlie
Charlesworth
Treasurer: Steven Farmer Vaughan
UK Meeting Secretary: Dick Pickup
The meeting opened at 1100 hrs with 30
members in attendance.
1 CHAIRMANS INTRODUCTION
The Chairman welcomed all members to the meeting and was pleased to
note that, after last years concern about the numbers in attendance, this year
the number attending the reunion was up to 45.
2 LAST POST
The membership were asked
to stand and the names of those members who had passed away since the last AGM
were read out:
ANGUS SOUTHWOOD (July 22)
DAVE STRASSE STREET
TOM PERKIN
STEVE ANTHONY
CHRIS JONES
BRIAN NEIL
MICHAEL STUBBINGS
TONY GAMBLE
DENNIS PARR
RALF PLANT
MIKE WILLIAMS
The exhortation was
recited and a minutes silence was observed followed by the Kohima Epitaph
3 APOLOGIES
Apologies had been received from: Clive Sanders; Robbie Seaward;
Mike Miller; Ken Vipond; Horst Funke; Ian Trowhill;
Ernie Robertson; Tom Neal; Keith Middleton; Rod Walker; Bob Wells; Jud
Charlesworth
4 MINUTES OF THE LAST MEETING
The minutes of the 30th
Annual General Meeting, held on Friday 30 June 2023, had been circulated to the
membership and posted on the Association website. Dennis Weir proposed, and Gerry Kane seconded, that the minutes
were a true reflection of the proceedings of that meeting.
5 MATTERS ARISING
5.1 Following
last years meeting Ben Husband had stepped forward and offered to be the
Editor of the Listening Post.
5.2 The website was
still operational but without a webmaster so cannot be updated. No-one as yet
had come forward to fill this post.
5.3 Robbie
McCallum remains the Standard Bearer for any meetings taking place in Langeleben, but there was still currently no Standard
Bearer for the UK meetings. Lawrence Sterland stepped forward to fill this
position and thanks were given to him.
6 MEMBERSHIP SECRETARYS REPORT
As had been mentioned by the Chairman at Last Post, ten members had
been lost, and no new members recruited leaving the membership standing at 286
vs 296 for last year.
Horst Funke was thanked for his very kind donation to purchase a raffle
prize.
Robbie McCallum was thanked for carrying out the Standard Bearer duty
for the meeting.
Mike Miller had asked to pass on greetings and best wishes to Ernie
Callaghan, Jock Stirling and Stuart McLoud and Cynthia Buckley asked to be
remembered to Ernie and Sheila Callaghan, Gerry Kane and Joyce Parr.
7 TREASURERS REPORT
Details of the accounts had been
circulated for scrutiny and the balances were as follows:
Business Account 1,898.82
Reserve Account 820.09
TOTAL 2,718.91
Special mention was made of the extremely generous donations made by
Ken Vipond whenever he is unable to be at the reunion and thanks proffered.
8 SECRETARYS REPORT
Dick Pickup was again thanked for his part in making the arrangements
with the Quorn Grange Hotel on behalf of all of those attending.
9 PRESIDENT'S AD'DRESS
Army development still not recruiting to the 72K level. It was hard
then to imagine how the proposed conscription could possibly work.
Sharon Nesmith, Royal Signals, has been promoted to a 4* General, made
a Dame and appointed as the Vice Chair of the Defence Staff. In a similar vein,
a female Royal Signals WOI had been appointed the Army Sgt Major. Both of these
appointments were indicative of how the Royal Signals and Intelligence Corps were
viewed in today's modern army.
Intelligence Corps.
The whole business of cyber warfare, both defence and attack, was
clearly becoming more important to both the Intelligence Corps and Royal
Signals and the workload was increasing. It was really good cutting edge stuff
but the downside to this was that Corporations were offering military staff
twice the salary to jump ship and work for them. Retention therefore continued
to be a serious issue. The Intelligence Corps now offers an inducement of 15K
to sign on for another three years but this in no way makes up for doubling a
salary.
The Corps had introduced a trade called Data Science Specialists. Those
entering this trade were promoted to SSgt and remain in that rank for the
entirety of their service. They did not undertake any management role in order
to focus on deepening their knowledge and ability in those areas.
Royal Signals
The manning level of 6,200 was much smaller than that of the past, but was
a much higher percentage of the total army manning levels than when the
membership served.
There were 14 regular regiments and each regiment was made up of less
than 400 personnel versus the 600-1,000 in the past. Three of those regiments were
dedicated to cyber warfare. The Corps continued to struggle to recruit and
retain personnel. It recruited 83% of its target last year but was predicted to
recruit only 60% of target this year. This reflected the fact that the skills
of the Royal Signals were in high demand in civvy street. It was important to
note both Intelligence Corps and Royal Signals were absolutely reliant on
essential tasks on operations being delivered by the Reserves.
Operations and Exercises
Elements of 14 Signal Regiment were constantly deployed in support of
the war in Ukraine. Other overseas operations continued, punctuated with
humanitarian and Foreign and Commonwealth Office support. Principally this
related to regiments supporting operations in Sudan and more recently support
for the crisis in Israel. There had been multiple discreet Army special
deployments supported by a Specialist Signals Squadron and Electronic Warfare
and Signals Intelligence operations continued throughout the year.
Royal Signals support continued across Somalia, Nigeria, Kenya, Iraq
and Kuwait and it was fair to say that where Signals were deployed the
Intelligence Corps would also be involved.
At home, operations had increased in scope and scale particularly with
the wide ranging and ongoing industrial action, with almost every Field Army
Signals Regiment contributing to some degree across fire-fighter, border force
and NHS strike action.
10 ELECTON OF OFFICERS
Chairman Steve Farmer Vaughn proposed Bernie Nealing
seconded by A N Other.
Treasurer Steve Farmer Vaughn proposed Gerry Kane seconded by Stuart
McLeod
Membership Secretary- Charlie Charlesworth was willing to continue
Secretary Jud Charlesworth was willing to continue
11 ANY OTHER BUSINESS
11.1Ben Husband wondered if virtual meetings
might be arranged so that those unable to attend might be able to dial in. Dick
Pickup volunteered to ask the hotel if that service was available on site, and
Ben and Farmer Vaughn would investigate further.
11.2 Gerry Kane reported that Bob Wells, due to a
fall, was currently in a care home but his daughter would be bringing him to
the reunion during the afternoon. People were encouraged to say hello.
11.3Peter Ellis son, connected to archaeological
digs, had found a stainless steel Jimmy and a horse collar. On suggestion,
Peter forwarded the horse collar to the Royal Signals Museum at a cost of
£108.00. The President confirmed that he would suggest that the Royal Signals
Museum reimburse Peter Ellis.
11.4 Jock Stirling wondered who would be attending
the Schutzenfest in Konigstlutter
on 23‑24 August this year and, if so, should John Richardson be involved
with the arrangements.
At this point Frank
Pye expressed concern about how the process which resulted in the decision to
hold the AGM every year in the UK and not every other year in Langeleben was conducted. After much debate and discussion
it was agreed that the process taken was correct. It was emphasised that,
should members wish to make the trip to Langeleben
each year it would still be an OFFICIAL visit, supported by John Richardson,
but that an AGM would not be held.
Charlie
Charlesworth volunteered to e-mail out to the membership to gauge the uptake
for this year and liaise with John Richardson accordingly. This offer was
accepted.
11.5 Steve Hickman had had six magnetic 225 Signal
Squadron plaques made and offered three to be included in the raffle which was
very well received.
11.6 Ron Clay offered a vote of thanks to the
Committee.
Illona Hauxwell then addressed the
membership: She paid tribute to our late Chairman, Chris Jones; she voiced her
consternation that no-one could be found to maintain the Langeleben
website, a place that she frequently visited with fond memories. She reported
that she and Mrs Hickman regularly look after and clean the Memorial Stone and that
a new reflector had been fitted to one of the stone barriers. She spoke about
her time in the Sgts Mess and remembered with fondness visits from Lady Di and
Princess Ann and the absolute joy of welcoming the troops back into camp from
the war in the Middle East. She informed about changes to the Tetzelstein and that the owner of the Halfway House had
passed away. Due to some fragility she stated that this would be the last time
she visited the UK for the reunion, hoped that she would see those who made the
trip to Langeleben in the future, and wished everyone
well. This address received a goodly round of applause.
12 EVENING ARRANGEMENTS
Dick Pickup confirmed arrangements for the evening meal, raffle and
group photograph
There being no further business the meeting closed at 1215 hrs.