RMC Annual Review 2020-21 digital (1) - Flipbook - Page 10
History
1946
RMA – The Royal Marines Charity celebrates its
75th anniversary in 2021, marking the foundation
of one of its predecessor organisations,
the Royal Marines Association in 1946.
Timeline
The creation of the Royal Marines
Association. After the Second World
War, the Royal Marines Old Comrades
Association (RMOCA), flourished in
port cities, providing comradeship and
mutual support. The demobilisation
of some 80% of the then 77,000 Royal
Marines posed a challenge to find
employment on a huge scale. On the
initiative of Lt. Col Nicol Gray and Col
Paine, RMA was established in early
1946 after an initial meeting on
Membership
had levelled at
7,000 — including
3,000 serving
Royal Marines.
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Sir Robert Sturges as President, and
an Executive Committee meeting
monthly with branch and regional
representatives. The original aims were
to help those going outside find jobs,
resettle and maintain contact with
each other and the Corps, and to assist
those in financial need, principally
through assistance from the Royal
Naval Benevolent Trust. There was a
target for 50,000 members by the end
of the first financial year 30 April 1947.
43 Commando RM
1948
1954/56
1965
1975/76
A new bespoke HQ was opened by
Earl Mountbatten of Burma at 5 Talbot
Square, London in 1948, by which
time there were 155 branches and
30,000 members, and by the start of
1950 jobs had been found for 9,300
members. 1952 saw a step up in the
employment and welfare sections, and
the appointment of the first General
Secretary followed a year later.
The first annual reunion took place
in Wigan in 1954; and in 1956 the
Central Office moved in with the
Royal Naval Association in Sloane
Square, but membership had fallen
to 12,000, followed by a further fall
to 8,000 by 1964, the Tercentenary
year when there were many events.
The War
Memorial Pavilion
at Eastney barracks
became Central
Office in 1965.
The first CTC-based reunion takes
place in ‘75; and the first Graspan
parade takes place in the Mall in ‘76.
47 Commando, 1945
1978
27th November 1945. The original aims
were to help those going outside find
jobs, resettle and maintain contact
with each other and the Corps, and
to assist those in financial need,
principally through assistance from
the Royal Naval Benevolent Trust.
RMA was initially based in an office
in Queen Anne’s Mansions in Petty
France, Westminster alongside the
then Royal Marines HQ, with HM King
George VI as Royal Patron and Lt Gen
Eastney Barracks, 1956
1991
2001—2014
1991 saw Central Office move
into two rooms in the old
Officers’ Mess at Eastney as the
Corps moved out of the barracks.
The Corps saw significant action in
Iraq and Afghanistan from 200114, and though Royal Marines make
up only 4-5% of British armed
forces, their elite skills (meaning
they provide 45-50% of UK Special
Forces) meant that they were
disproportionately exposed to threat.
Celebrating the 75th Year of the RMA
As a consequence, though they
won 25% of awards for bravery in
Afghanistan, they sustained 13%
of deaths and 16% of the serious
injuries. RMA founded a Shop based
in Stonehouse Barracks Plymouth, to
generate profits which could be fed
back into support for the Corps Family.
www.rma-trmc.org
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