[TR] Maybe the last lunch

[John Macartney]

Jim, very many thanks for your kind words. The Sir John Black policy of recruiting vets affected all services, not just the RAF in isolation. We have in the UK an organisation called the Corps of Commissionaires. The Corps is made up of mostly Serjeants, Colour Sergeants and Sergeants Major. They provide reception services to large companies as they have their own uniforms and they’re always incredibly smart. We had these men at all reception points throughout the company in the UK, and in accordance with the John Black directive issued at the beginning of WW2, if any ex employee was later re-employed through honourable discharge, their retirement age would be when they wanted to leave and not at age 65. 
We had three Commissionaires in key locations in Coventry and all of them were in their late seventies. They were always scrupulously polite, immaculate in their uniforms and charming conversationalists. I used to talk to all of them as I was able and apart from the pleasure of having a chat, it was an opportunity to study their medal ribbons. All three men had won the Victoria Cross, our highest award for bravery and the man who worked the Sales Block reception desk had won it twice! But between all of them, anyone with the knowledge of medal ribbons could see they proudly wore the Victoria Cross, the Mons Star, the Distinguished Service Order, the Gallipoli medal and the Military Cross, plus the various other general service and victory medals aka Pipsqueak and Wilfred. All those men had done WW1 from start to finish in the desert, in Greece, at sea and the horrors of trench warfare in France and Belgium. They were always very quiet but never a day passed without a nod of the head, a smile or a friendly greeting. The thing I remember about all of them was that even after a brief conversation on any subject, you parted company feeling better for having spoken to them. They were true gentlemen who had somehow survived the nightmares of close quarter engagement on many occasions and amazingly had not been sent mad through what they had seen or done. Those are the people I remember and respect the most.

Jonmac

> On 23 Dec 2023, at 12:32, Jim Henningsen <trguy75 at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> John, a tip of a Bass Ale to you and all those who served.  I have always appreciated your personal stories that covered all the emotions.  Just like this one, sad as it is.  Cheers to you.  My favorite that I still share with others when they comment on how sloppy the commission plate stampings look is the one where you told us triumph standard hired disabled RAF war vets to give them a job and some of them punched those plates as best they could.  To me they are perfectly imperfect!  
> Merry Christmas to you
> Jim Henningsen
> Ocala, fl USA 
> 
>> On Dec 22, 2023, at 10:59 PM, John Macartney <johnbmacartney at gmx.com> wrote:
>> 
>> For at least the last thirty years, I have attended a self-funded Christmas lunch held in Coventry for former employees of Standard-Triumph’s Home and Export Sales departments, Export Shipping, Dealer Development, Advertising and staff from the Parts Division. These were what anyone visiting the building known as Fletch South would have encountered had they arrived at that location. All in all, about 250-300 people tops. My first lunch back in 1992 (I’d been living overseas until then) saw a total headcount of about 180 and over the years that followed we always drank a toast in memory of those who had died during the previous year or who were absent through ill health. During the pandemic and the two lockdowns of 2020 and 2021, we didn’t have a Christmas lunch because of infection risk but we do know too many people died through COVID, cancer or just old age. Today was sobering for all of us as only 10 place settings were at our usual table and the Memorial Toast was for 49 people who were hale, hearty, life and soul, happy and jolly at the 2019 lunch which everyone today also attended.
>> It seems but only yesterday we were all together working for one objective, young women, young men, together with many more older examples of the same. And in a finger snap, but just a few survive and for maybe only a little while longer? Who knows? How many place settings for the 2024 lunch? I’d rather not ponder that.
>> 
>> Jonmac
>> ** triumphs at autox.team.net **
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