Dieppe October 2012

Many thanks to Simon Worrall for organising a most successful weekend. It went like clockwork and we covered an enormous amount of ground. The input from everyone involved enlivened the debate and stretched our minds. The weather tried, but failed to dampen spirits, although on Saturday it succeeded in dampening just about everything else. Thanks to everyone for their excellent company and to those who chipped in for the H4H appeal; about £35 was raised.

Paul Oldfield

My heartfelt thanks for a brilliant weekend!

It's become the norm for superlatives to reign when describing Guild weekends, but this one really was up there with the best I've attended. WW2 raids aren't a strong point of mine, but I learned so much from the weekend and thoroughly enjoyed everyone's company.
I know how much work you put into it (not to mention stepping-in to cover for poor old Scotty, who missed a cracker) and you managed to make it one to remember.
Watch out, Dudley, - Simon's chasing your crown as "King of the Recce"!

Bob Brunsdon

Many thanks for all the hard work put into organising a most enjoyable and informative weekend - hope you got home OK last night.

To all those who went - thanks very much for your company and the amount of knowledge (and stories of guiding and other events) shared freely - and I hope to see you at the AGM or elsewhere.

Tim Stoneman

Thanks for all the effort you do to make this excellent tour. A good accommodation, good food (although I missed some lunches) good weather: rain, wind and sun but no snow!  The tour gives me a good impression of the ground and the possibilities if our tour with the Friends of the Airborne Museum in July 2013. I had to come again to Bruneval and Dieppe before we organise this 2013 coach tour.

Thanks to all members of the tour for their participation in the tour. Bob thanks again for the useful map.

Wybo Boersma

A warm greeting to all my wonderful friends in the Guild who were or sadly were not with us for that wild, wet windy week end at the Mercure (or elsewhere, Margaret and Francois!), and a huge thanks to everybody who put so much of their knowledge and energy into all those amazing presentations and stands (with or without loo and coffee breaks!). I have got the bug and am full of ideas of tracing any descendants of veterans and/or members of our Porteous Association and setting up a tour! If and when time permits, I shall send you any print outs that I had prepared to replace the wet ones we were handing around!

Of course words fail me even in print, as they did at dinner, for the amazing gift of the beautiful framed replica of Dad's VC. I showed it off to all the guests at the birthday party at Gueures and again at Michael Jones' talk to Battlefield Trust at the Tower.

Charmian Griffiths

The sheer height of the cliffs was impressive

Simon,

Thank you for organising an outstanding  weekend event. I thoroughly 

enjoyed myself and learned a lot.   It was great fun to spend the

weekend with such  great bunch of people came along.

It was a very well designed weekend  and the administration was flawless.  It isn't easy to get everything to work well and to have as smooth a running event as we did is a  mark of real expertise.  I suspect that you must have put in a lot of thought into this.

Frank Baldwin

Meeting the Mayor of Dieppe

Just a quick email to say thanks to Simon for organising and running a very interesting visit to Bruneval and Dieppe. 

I would also like to say thanks to every one who presented a stand or gave a presentation in the evening. They were very interesting and full of relevant information.

Finally it was good to meet every one from the Guild and I look forward to seeing most of you in November

Carl Hellicar

Charmian Griffiths where her father won the VC on 19 August 1942

Bob Brunsdon clanking and tanking – explaining how to waterproof a Churchill tank with a tin of Bostick and some bloomer (or was it balloon?) fabric – apparently it wasn’t a wind-up

Simon,

As has been said by all those who have already e-mailed, well done on organising a really good weekend event. The coverage was comprehensive and the company convivial. I certainly learned a lot.

When are you going to organise the next one??

Laurie Evanson-Goddard

Simon Worrall summing up at the junction of Red and White Beaches after a hugely successful weekend

Simon,

Many thanks for all the time and effort that you put into the Dieppe weekend. What a great and interesting group!

John Greene