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Reunions
2011

Photographs from Richard Abraham

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St Fagg's Day Luncheon – Thursday 21 April
Civil Service Club, Whitehall.
The Day
This event was a great success with seventeen sitting down to a superb lunch - after an hour plus in the bar – accompanied by wine, jugs of ale and port. The loyal toast followed by those to the regiments – AAJLR and ICCY – then to St Fagg! Much jollity and banter which then resumed back in the bar. The attendees were as shown in the attached photographs.
The History
This luncheon was inaugurated as a celebration of St Georges Day which I first attended in 2009. During that rather liquid luncheon the half-dozen or so present were regaled with the story of L/Cpl. Hermes Fagg, Green Jackets and some bright spark (John Sabini I believe) came up with the idea of re-christening this event as the "St. Fagg's Memorial Luncheon"; one reason being that it could not always be guaranteed to hold it on St Georges Day every year, and another that…………..well, it seemed a grand idea at the time! As it seems our former much revered Regimental Policeman may be alive and well, and living in Kent, we have dropped the word memorial!
More History
We all know (as far as our diminishing memories allow) the history of the AAJLR and Tonfanau but courtesy of John Sabini I thought it might be of interest to provide similar of the ICCY – The Inns of Court and City Yeomanry. Our Comrades Association has only been going since 2004 yet the contacts made outside of it - mostly military but even involving as it has a 'stray' Metropolitan Police detective –the knock on effect is being much enjoyed by those who are in contact or attend various gatherings; hence the following and the photos of those who were not at Tonfanau but because of us and our socially outgoing personalities probably think they were!!
The ICCY dates from 1584 when lawyers from the Inns of Court formed associations to defend the country against the Spanish Armada, and the that regimental and intimate relationship with the law and lawyers gave rise to their nickname – "The Devil's Own" – 'granted them by King George III in 1803 as he disliked the legal profession! During the Civil War the lawyers fought with the Royalists whilst their clerks were on the other side. The regiment has twenty-six battle honours ranging through both World Wars, has seen service in present day conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan and had HM Queen Mother as its Royal Honorary Colonel from 1957 to 2002.
In 1986 the 348 Squadron, ICCY was part of The Home Service Force raised during The Cold War years specifically for "Key Point", in order to support the home defence roles of the and Regular and Territorial Army. Although administrated and badged by the TA, in a war role they would have been deployed directly into the regular army order of battle for home defence.
The Home Service Force recruited only ex-regular service personnel (Army, Navy and RAF) or TA trained soldiers; there was no direct entry from civilian life which dramatically reduced training time. 348 Squadron was active from 1986 to 1993.
During the course of our time we mounted a live ammo guard at Woolwich Barracks at the time of Provo IRA UK campaign and John was the guard commander on this deployment; one of his main objectives being to avoid a "Blue on Blue" incident. This he did by, among other actions, disarming a former RAF cook who he further deployed to be i/c tea and sarnies; everyone has a niche in life and his was not wandering around carrying an SLR with a full magazine!
The HSF was disbanded in 1994, and the ICCY HSF Squadron re-roled as the Regimental Defence Troop, finally being absorbed by 71 Signal Regiment in 1995.
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If you have any reunion photos I would love to show them.

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