Sorry I couldn’t reply sooner urqh, I bin away on the vino. Yes, the Commando Association (of Old Comrades of the Army Commandos) formally and ceremoniously stood down in Portsmouth last September. This of course has no bearing on the Royal Marines Association etc. The Commando Association was formed in Achnacarry by commandant Charles Vaughn after Achnacarry became established as the Commando basic training centre in 1942. As the Commandos were formed in June 1940, not all Commandos were members (because for one thing not all Commandos passed through Achnacarry), and some never knew of the Association. Furthermore, not all Commandos were interested in an Association or in maintaining an interest post war as the years moved on.

Initially the Association did not accept Marines, but even when this rule was changed, a rule which never changed was that membership was only open to Commandos of 1940-1945 service – hence the Association had built-in obsolescence. At the standdown there were only about 150 or so Commando Veterans there. Actually the Association tried to close down several times in the past, but enough members insisted it limp on, probably towards the end in little more than name only. The biggest real ‘final gathering’ was probably at Fort William in 2002 to mark the 50th anniversary of the unveiling of the Commando Memorial at Spean Bridge in 1952 by HM Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother - 2002 by Prince Phillip.

Other than the 40-45 rule, their other great shortcoming was a small band of ‘old boy’ chiefs who refused to give up control despite their great ages and progressive blatant inability to run an antiquated association in modern times. The continued esprit de corps is admirable, but the logic and reality of it all is ludicrous. Take the piece in your local press you refer to, those responsible actually have in their mind that dozens of former comrades will come bouncing into the meeting hall and swell membership. [img]graemlins/no.gif[/img]

You don’t say where you ‘home town’ currently is (I fort you wos London?), but if this was an exercise by the old Bristol Branch, I doubt if you’d have been happy there. If you’re in the west country and willing to travel as far as say Taunton, I might be able to help out?

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