RGJRA In the News

In December 1962 the 1^st Battalion (43^rd and 52^nd) quartered safe in Penang and settling down for Christmas leave, were mobilised at short notice and sent to Brunei where a revolt had broken out. That was the beginning of a four year period during which all three Greenjacket Battalions saw active service in the Borneo jungles, initially against insurgents but increasingly facing Indonesian regulars. It was a formative experience for many of that first post-National Service generation and every year at reunions, we continue to talk about it, probably boring younger veterans senseless in the process. Compared to the ongoing operations in Afghanistan it was pretty modest stuff but we left comrades behind and that’s something we should remember.   

Ten years ago in November 2001 at the Oxford reunion, a group of us came up with an idea  to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the beginning of the Borneo engagement the following year, in December 2002. At that stage it wasn't going to be much more than an excuse for a get- together, with a plate of nasi goreng and a few beers, with a bit of NAAFI style singing. As is the way with these ideas, other things came along and nothing more came of it. But at the National Memorial at Alrewas recently I was reminded that December 2012 will be the 50th anniversary, and starting to look like the last occasion when there are still enough of us standing to make a good show of it. Moreover, Help for Heroes is going to go on needing assistance for a long while yet, and that presented a good reason for organising something.

The 43^rd & 52^nd did three tours in Borneo (Brunei, Sarawak and Sabah) and then the 60th did two tours, followed by the RB.  Anyhow, it seems like a good reason for old Greenjackets to commemorate the campaign and remember the guys that we left behind. So, this is an attempt to sound out the opinions of the model I’ve tentatively sketched out below.

The idea would be to get a suitable sized venue, capable of holding around 200, and where there’s scope to decorate it - camouflage netting and OG drapes, maybe a few sandbags, with some green spot lighting. There's no end to the things you could use to create an atmosphere, and we'd only be limited by costs. I'd try to get via friends who work in TV some old newsreel footage that we’d show on a screen, playing on a loop, plus slides. Although we’d have a sit down meal, we also need space for people to circulate both before and after the food. I'd probably deliberately go for trestle tables to keep it ‘authentic’! For the ticket price you'd get a decent Malaysian meal (catered by a restaurant) and a few cans of Tiger apiece and there would be a pay bar as well.

I've been involved in organising festivals for the last thirty years and I’ve got a personal licence to sell alcohol which can be handy as if the venue had no existing bar, the bar profits would all go to the cause. I’d suggesting keeping speeches to a minimum, with a welcome, then one person who would tell the story briefly, read out the names of those left behind and then have a bugler play Last Post and Rouse Reveille ( we might try to persuade the Bugler that he should dress in jungle green for the occasion!). I'd hire in a singer who has a good repertoire of barrack room ballads and take it from there with a singsong.

Overall, I'm inclined to design it as an event run by other ranks with officers invited as guests, but overall it would be a rifleman’s evening. Little extras suggest themselves such as getting hold of a couple of the stone jars we used to get issue rum in and pass them down the table..... Until we find a venue its hard to call a ticket price, though we should try to keep it cheap enough not to put people off, but still make a good few bob for Help for Heroes. There might be a possibility of approaching both the Malaysian High Commission and the Brunei equivalent to seek sponsorship though obviously for the food or other costs and not for alcohol. 

So, what’s your reaction? Is it workable? Is it overly ambitious to try to attract veterans of all three Battalions? Is there something I've missed? Where should such an event be? I live in London but it is an expensive city for people to travel to and get overnight accommodation.  Anyway your comments, favourable or otherwise, would be welcome.

Please address your responses to returntotheulu@mail.com

Dick Muskett, ex-C Coy and Recce, 1962-68