Your local Royal British Legion

A few remembrance Sundays ago I made a rare decision to march with my local Royal British Legion, something I probably would never have thought of doing when I was a young man. Considering my War was nearly 30 years ago it did not seem that strange to me that I had officially become an `Old Git.`  In the bar I spoke to a small band of mainly World War Two veterans and asked about joining the Legion as a member. I was told “There is no need to do that just come in for a pint when you want.” I just shrugged my shoulders and never really thought about what they were saying. Over the subsequent years I have spoken to several other veterans some from the same town that had a similar story and all were dissuaded from joining for one reason or another. I have heard the same story from other towns in the area. From what I could see on my day marching it was a very small group and I was told they were dwindling on a yearly basis due to deaths. Very sad as now all of the  first world War veterans are gone, RIP. Eventually it will be the turn of the WW2 veterans and then Korea and the Falklands and so on. I believe its about time that the Legion at local levels should openly start to recruit more veterans from recent conflicts to take the place of those sadly past and build a bright future. This is in no way taking anything away from the work the RBL does and the money raised by the poppy collection is amazing, but its still better to see a veteran collecting than a civilian doing it on the RBLs behalf in my opinion. The Legion at Head office is a well oiled machine and helps our veterans on a daily basis, but like the Conservative clubs and church's around the Country I would hate to see the clubs closing and being turned into apartments and only see the RBL march on special occasion like the Cenotaph in Whitehall. So if your reading this and a member of the Legion  next time a veteran from post WW2 asks if he can join, get him a form and make him feel welcome , because like it or not he is the future of the RBL.