Veterans honoured for Armed Forces Day

North Kesteven District Council’s annual presentation of veteran’s badges as part of its Armed Forces Day activities this year saw 14 veterans honoured.

Twelve were present at the lunch – including two husband and wife couples – to receive their token of years of service from Council Leader Coun Richard Wright.

In total there were 36 veterans, making up half of the guests at the lunch, including Navy veteran Alan Harris, 94, of Kirkby la Thorpe who three weeks earlier had read the Kohima Epitaph at the 75th anniversary commemoration of D-Day in Normandy.

This year’s badge recipients included 89-year-old Fay Price who remembers seeing King George lead the Remembrance at the Cenotaph and participation in the Annual Festival of Remembrance in 1949; Kenneth Hannah who spent 37 years in the RAF to earn the Meritorious Service Medal for distinguished service; and weapons analyst Elaine Goacher who had to demonstrate her missile testing work to the Prime Minister.

Coun Waring said: “North Kesteven had marked Armed Forces Day for more than a decade with ‘commemoration, celebration and dignity’ to recognise and contribute to a wider understanding of the Armed Forces, the crucial role they play in our every day lives and particularly the three Armed Forces bases and large number of serving and former military personnel living in the District.”

In the shop window competition, Bellisimo Boutique in the Market Place won and Andy’s Children’s Hospice in Southgate was runner-up.

The school’s design competition to draw an image for the promotional material drew a record 113 entries from 10 schools, with the winner judged to be Emma Longstaffe, seven, from Navenby School.

Armed Forces Day events are brought together by 
NKDC, Sleaford Town 
Council and service organisations, with funding from the MOD.