Regimental Histories - Year 1960-1985 - Brockbank - Page 0092
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Ulster this was spoilt by the death of Trooper Prendergast from injur- ies received in a land mine explosion near Belleek, He was the only operational casualty of the tour, He was a Roman Catholic from Corby where a very large congregation attended the funeral. May saw the Loyalist strike led by Dr Paisleyt It caused a redeployment of the Regiment to deal with the unusual activities of the strikers which were aimed at preventing move- ment. Large numbers of trees were felled, and other obstruc— tions on roads kept troops busy clearing up rather than on their anti—terrorist duties. Staff Sergeant Rycroft actually detained nine men cutting down pylons. Mr Brown, Minister for the Army, paid tribute in the House to the work of the Regiment. “I witnessed the splendid work of our Security Forces in Lhe Border area as I arrived in the area just as an operation was being mounted. I was able to see for myself the smartness of the reaction that our Security Forces can produce This was at a little out station under command of a 2/Lt”t Another visitor was the Secretary of State for Defence, Mr Mason, who attended Beating Retreat in Omagh with other VIPst 1977 was also the year of the Queen’s Silver Jubilee cel— ebrated by the Regiment with a Church service and sports for the children who were presented with mugs. A medal was struck and awarded to Lt-Col l’ye, Captain Bell, RSM Grant, Mr Goldsmith, Stafl' Sergeants Baker, Rycroft, and Veti and Sergeant Fergus. The regimental football team under the man- agement of Captain Bell gained the distinction of reaching the Cavalry Cup final in April at which 200 regimental supporters saw it lose to the Queen’s Royal Irish Hussars, The cricket team captained by Captain Graham, REME, also earned con- gratulations for its performance in winning the Northern Ireland Major Units Knockout competitions Personalities changed; Major Thornton handed over HQ Squadron to Major Twickel, Major Marman B Squadron to Major Hutchins and Captain Bell took over as Regimental Quartermaster from Major Slingo MBE on his retirements The latter had joined the 12th Lancers in 1948 when the Regiment was at Barnard Castle and he had served continuously with both regiments in the Orderly Room and QM Departments until 1961 when he 89 |
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