Plymouth Vets To Meet The Queen With Lottery Funding

21.04.2008 10:30:00

Plymouth veterans will meet the Queen at Buckingham Palace thanks to an Awards for All grant of £3,760. It was one of five grants in Plymouth and 84 in the South West totalling £514,166, in the latest round of awards.

The Plymouth Branch Royal Tank Regiment Association will use its £3,760 grant to send 48 of its veterans, including seven from World War II, to visit the Houses of Parliament and attend a ceremony in which HM The Queen will re-dedicate the regiment’s Standards, in celebration of 90 years of service. They will travel to London on 24 June, and attend the commemoration and a Buckingham Palace garden party the following day.

Michael Daley, veteran and spokesperson, said: “Our association is made up of ex-servicemen form the Royal Tank Regiment and we’re concerned mainly with helping colleagues who have fallen by the wayside, in whatever way we can. The regiment itself has existed for over 90 years and the first ever tank battle was in Cambrai, France, in 1917. They didn’t really think the tanks would work at that point, but in fact they were so successful that when they won Cambrai, they had to backtrack because there was no infantry to support their position! It’s been a very important regiment ever since.

“It’s a great honour to be able to visit parliament and to attend the ceremony. It’s important because when you join the services, you pledge your allegiance to Queen and country, and it’s wonderful later on to be able to see your monarch, and to visit the places where decisions were made. Some of our oldest veterans were part of World War II and are in their eighties, and they’ve never visited parliament before! It will be wonderful to see their faces on the day itself.”

Another project granted funding today is Highfield Community School, which will receive £8,170 to provide pupils and families with outdoor and arts-based activities designed to build community spirit and teach new skills. Students and parents in this economically deprived area will get the opportunity to take advantage of Plymouth’s coastal setting through kayaking, canoeing, abseiling and orienteering, and will also get the chance to appreciate art, drama and music through gallery visits, film making, and art residentials. The programme begins in May, and will last for a year.

Kim Dorian-Kemp, Head Teacher, said: “Highfield School is the lynchpin of this community in an otherwise socially and economically disadvantaged spot. We want to create community cohesion and broaden horizons for our students and their families too. Our pupils have very limited experience of either the outside world or art and we want to involve parents in these activities so that they’ll encourage these interests in their children later on. A project like this can give a great sense of direction, something to really draw on. Hopefully, the interest we spark off in entire families will be something we can sustain, that the community can build on too.”

Other projects in Plymouth set to receive funding are Devon Schools Sailing Association, which gets £9,071 to enable more children to take part in sailing, Plymouth Heartbeat, which will use its £4,520 grant to deliver physical exercise sessions for young people and Goosewell Primary School, who will get £10,000 to carry out safety improvements on its swimming pool.

Awards for All is the small grants scheme administered by the Big Lottery Fund on behalf of Lottery good cause funders, Arts Council England, Big Lottery Fund, Heritage Lottery Fund and Sport England. The scheme makes awards of between £300 and £10,000 to grass-roots community groups and voluntary organisations.

Mark Cotton, Big Lottery Fund Head of the South West region, said on behalf of Awards for All: “We’ve been able to give half a million pounds of funding to important community projects around the South West region this month, whether its war veterans visiting the queen or community art projects, so many schemes in Plymouth and the South West have really benefited.”

For a full list of award recipients visit: http://www.awardsforall.org.uk/england/news.html

Client name: The Big Lottery Fund

Web link: www.biglotteryfund.org.uk