MINUTES OF THE 32nd ANNUAL
GENERAL MEETING
of the
LANGELEBEN REUNION ASSOCIATION
held on
FRIDAY 27 JUNE 2025
at
QUORN GRANGE HOTEL,
LOUGHBOROUGH
President: Tim Inshaw CB
Chairman: Stephen Farmer Vaughan
Membership Secretary: Charlie
Charlesworth
Treasurer: Steven Farmer Vaughan
UK Meeting Secretary: Dick Pickup
Secretary: Jud Charlesworth
The meeting opened at 1100 hrs with 22
members in attendance.
1
CHAIRMANS INTRODUCTION
The Chairman welcomed all members to the meeting.
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:
BILL
FRY ROYAL SIGNALS
DEREK
SPINDLOW
JACK
BISHOP - ROYAL SIGNALS
DERRICK
TRON - ROYAL SIGNALS
JIM
HUSBAND - ROYAL SIGNALS
MIKE
SHAIL - INTELLIGENCE CORPS
ANDREW
SNOWDEN - ROYAL SIGNALS
ARNUF
BAUMANN - HONORARY MEMBER
The exhortation was
recited, and a minutes silence was observed followed by the Kohima Epitaph
3 APOLOGIES
Apologies had been received from: Robbie McCallum, Chris Mosely, Stuart
McLeod (the first AGM missed in 29 years), Clive Sanders (on poetry duties),
Larry Holmes, John Chudleigh, Mick Hurn, Keith Middleton, Charlie Hebdon,
Dennis Weir (at the Dannenburg Reunion), Neil Mapp
and Ken Vipond who had sent a message to the membership together with a very
generous donation.
4 MINUTES OF THE LAST MEETING
The minutes of the 31st
Annual General Meeting, held on Friday 28 June 2024, had been circulated
to the membership. Peter Ellis proposed, and Steve
Clifford seconded, that the minutes were a true reflection of the proceedings
of that meeting.
5 MATTERS ARISING
5.1 Ben Husband wondered if virtual meetings
might be arranged so that those unable to attend might be able to dial in. Dick
Pickup had spoken with the hotel and, unfortunately, they do not possess the
facilities to enable this to take place.
5.2 The website was
still operational but without a webmaster so could not be updated. No-one had
yet come forward to fill this post. The Membership Secretary, Charlie
Charlesworth, had spoken with Grade 1 Solutions, who maintain the website, and
they confirmed that, for a fee of 55 +VAT per hour, they would be prepared to
update the site for the Association. This was put to the membership and the
vote in favour was unanimous.
6 MEMBERSHIP SECRETARYS REPORT
As had been mentioned by the Chairman at Last Post, eight members had
been lost, one member had asked to be removed from the membership list and no
new members recruited leaving the membership standing at 275.
Lawrence Sterland was thanked for carrying out the Standard Bearer duty
for the meeting.
7 TREASURERS REPORT
Details of the accounts had been
circulated for scrutiny and the balances were as follows:
Business Account 2,349.82
Reserve Account 831.10
TOTAL 3,180.92
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 despite some
unforeseen difficulties with the hotel due to a changeover of staff and
ownership.
9 PRESIDENTS ADDRESS
The President opened his address by commenting on how the world had
changed since our last meeting. He mentioned the continued Russian offensive
against Ukraine and the USAs political and economic attacks on its European
allies. The promise of increased defence spending by Europe at 5% seemed to be
aimed at the purchase of equipment with little mention of increasing the
manning levels.
Most worrying was the fact that, even if manning levels were to be
increased, the youngsters of today had little interest in joining the Armed
Forces. In his day it was possible to recruit and retain an Army of 155,000 in spite of the fact that women and gays were barred. The
current permitted Army establishment was around 72,000 and recruitment from all
parts of society allowed and yet still, the establishment manning levels could
not be reached. He wondered whether, despite a number of
difficult challenges, some form of conscription needed to be reinstated.
Against this background, as warfare becomes more dominated by cyber,
the Royal Signals and Intelligence Corps continue to be given high priority.
There was a call for more Russian linguists together with linguists in Arabic,
Farsi, Mandarin Chinese and Spanish.
Defensive cyber roles had seen a sharp increase in the Intelligence
Corps with recruiting targets, in some cases, doubled. Significant incentives
had been offered in the form of 15,000 for a service of three years.
The Royal Signals only achieved 45% of its recruitment target last
year. The Corps still retained its 17 regiments but
its total regular strength was 5,500, with a regiment consisting now of only
two signal squadrons and a headquarters squadron. This shortfall was reduced by the use of Queens Ghurka
Signals who made up over 12% of the Royal Signals strength.
Despite these figures being depressing, the good news was that the
Royal Signals and Intelligence Corps capabilities were in great demand and the
profile of both corps were higher than had ever been, with the post of
Deputy Armed Forces and Army Sargeant Major being held by Signallers for the
first time.
With regard to the Langeleben
Reunion Association, he noted the smallest reunion attendance in its 32 years.
There were many people who would be eligible to become members of the Association but these were people who had served in Langeleben in the mid-70s, 80s and 90s when they lived
and worked in a comfortable and modern camp and underwent discipline and
military training. He felt that it was the adversity of living conditions
endured in the early years, together with the freedom of oversight that few
soldiers had ever enjoyed, which provided such a strong bond and, for those in
National Services, Langeleben had been their one and
only posting. Longer serving regular soldiers, posted to so many places, tended
not to pick up such allegiances to one particular posting.
The President felt that it was now time for the membership to consider
when and how to bring to an end the unique entity that
was the Langeleben Reunion Association. Should the
Association close in a planned way on a high and with dignity,
or fizzle out because the attending numbers were so low. He stated that
he would continue as President as long as the
Association was active and that he was able.
His address was greeted by a goodly round of applause.
10 ANY OTHER BUSINESS
10.1 Horst Funke addressed the meeting stating
that, joining him would be a friend and Chief Officer of the Fire Brigade in
Taunton who was thankful to have been invited. He, and the people of Konigslutter, gave thanks to the Associations for its
continued support of the meetings held in Konigslutter
and the schutzenfest. As well as a raffle prize, and
as an appreciation of the friendship from Association members, he also made a donation of 100. Another goodly round of applause.
10.2 The partners of members always swell the
numbers at meeting, year in year out and continue their support even when their
partners have passed away. It was suggested that they be offered the
opportunity to become honorary members. This suggestion was put to the members
and was voted for unanimously.
10.3 A question was raised regarding how, with
Grade 1 Solutions updating the website, the information would be forwarded to
them. It was agreed that this would be through Ben Husband and Charlie
Charlesworth.
10.4 Tony Cudlip stated how appreciative he was of
the warm welcome given, and friendship extended, to his travelling companion.
10.5 For those people who still wanted to attend
the Schutzenfest in Konislutter
at the end of August, it was confirmed that John Richardson and/or Horst Funke
would assist in booking hotel accommodation.
10.6 With regard to the endurance of the
Association, it was proposed that the 35th reunion should be the
last. The majority view of the meeting was that this should be the case. This
proposal to be included in the next edition of the Listening Post and Website
to gain the thoughts of the membership.
10.7 It was suggested that, as many businesses now
sign up to The Forces Covenant, the hotel be approached with a view to help
with hotel rates in the future. The treasurer confirmed that he would look into this.
11 EVENING ARRANGEMENTS
Dick Pickup confirmed arrangements for the evening meal, raffle and
group photograph.
There being no further business the meeting closed at 1150 hrs.