RMC Annual Review 2020-21 digital (1) - Flipbook - Page 22
A Brief History of the Royal Marines Association
of interest with the Coronation, the Fleet Review,
and the inaugural RMA Church parade in the
City of London at St Botolph’s Church, where
the RMA marched alongside the regular Corps
and the RMFVR; and finally, a Royal Review of
Ex-Servicemen in Hyde Park attracted some 800
former Marines. A sub-committee was formed to
fund raise from the film premier of ‘Cockleshell
Heroes’, Douglas Fairbanks Jr was the chairman
and Lord Beatty was vice chairman, £5000 was
raised for RMA funds. The Executive Committee
also decided to engage an Organising Secretary
and from 300 applicants Brigadier C E LucasPhillips (of the Royal Artillery) was appointed.
This post only lasted three years. Annual church
parades had been held in London mainly at St
Martin’s in the Field, normally coinciding with
other London events, but the first ever weekend
AGM and Reunion in 1954 was held in Wigan.
This was also the inaugural meeting of the
newly constituted Council of 27 members.
regions near existing RM establishments and
sharing administration and personnel costs with
the serving Corps. The object was to eradicate
the idea that the RMA was wholly or largely an
ex-Servicemen’s organisation — at best fiftyfifty. By 1964, membership had dropped to 8,000
and active branches worldwide to 50. It was only
then that the RMA became a registered charity.
After consultation with CGRM, it was decided to
provide some fully furnished flats in Portsmouth,
Plymouth and Aberdeen for temporary use by
families who had no other accommodation and the
first of these was opened on 7th December 1963.
The Royal Marines Tercentenary Year, 1964,
was inevitably busy and 50 representatives of
the RMA were on parade at the Royal Review
in Buckingham Palace. There were numerous
events all over the country in which the RMA
played significant parts. That year at the
AGM there were representatives from five
overseas branches, three from New Zealand
and one each from Ontario and South Africa.
In 1954 came the introduction of consent forms
for serving members of the Corps, whereby their
specially reduced subscription was paid direct
from the pay ledger and resulted in a closer liaison
with the serving Corps. This became known as
Corps Subscriptions which still operate today,
albeit now at the full rate and known as the Service
Day’s Pay Giving Scheme. As Talbot Square had
been running at a loss for several years, Central
Office moved to smaller premises in Eaton Square
and christened it ‘The Royal Marines Club’, which
still offered limited accommodation. However,
two years later, these premises also proved
financially unviable and, although offices were
offered at a RM establishment, the Committee
still felt they should be in London. Central Office
moved in with the Royal Naval Association, with
whom they had a strong affinity and working
relationship and who had recently acquired
premises at 2 Lower Sloane Square. By 1957
membership had dropped to 12,000 including
5,000 members of the regular Corps. Four years
later National Service ended and the prognosis
for new members looked discouraging.
Inevitably the Central Office had to move out
of London and in June 1965 found a welcome
home in the War Memorial Pavilion at
Eastney under a new General Secretary. RMA
weekends had been held mainly in London
but both Deal and Eastney had also hosted
these events. At the latter Earl Mountbatten,
newly appointed Life Colonel Commandant of
the Royal Marines, took the salute in 1966
It was in 1968 that the
first weekend InterBranch shooting
competition was
held at Tipner range
in Portsmouth.
A complete overhaul of rules and aims was
made in 1959, when the Executive Committee
suggested linking the RMA even more closely
with the regular Corps and the RMFVR, basing
Over the next few years, the RMA were
represented at such nationwide events as
the investiture at Caernarvon of the Prince
of Wales and on Merseyside at the 50 th
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anniversary of the Zeebrugge raid, which
the old RMOCA and then the RMA had been
commemorating every year since 1920.
It introduced a dance in the evening besides
the Saturday AGM and the Sunday morning
parade and march past; by 1983, a Ladies
shooting competition had also been instituted.
As the face of the Corps changed, so the RMA
looked ahead; the properties in Portsmouth
were sold off, but those in Plymouth and one in
Aberdeen were retained, although these were
sold in 1972. The 25th Anniversary of the RMA
in 1971 was celebrated with great enthusiasm,
centrally at Eastney on 1st and 2nd May, regionally
at Merseyside, Lympstone and Portsmouth and
in many local branches. The very well attended
celebration at Eastney was honoured by the
presence of the Captain General, HRH The
Duke of Edinburgh and took a form, which has
been copied with minor variations ever since, a
morning parade and inspection by a Reviewing
Officer followed by a Drumhead Service, March
Past, Reunion and Lunch. This with the AGM,
Shooting and Dance on the previous day and a
Standard Bearer’s Competition after the lunch
completed a pattern which has received general
acceptance after a long search for the ideal
solution. The Newsletters were reintroduced
in 1974 and with the money raised from selling
properties, the Executive Council of the RMA
was able to make grants for amenities for the
Royal Marines serving in Northern Ireland
and expedition training equipment for Junior
Marines. They also took a leading part in
pressing for pension reforms for widows of Royal
Marines who had left the service before 1950.
1976 marked the 30th Anniversary of the
foundation of the RMA, the Association had
found a stability which gave its members,
serving and retired, a confidence in the
direction and future progress. Help and
comradeship for all Royal Marines was supplied
in the right places and the right ways.
Constant care, especially by the Executive Council,
over financial, membership and organisational
matters was still very necessary, but a definite
pattern was established; the popular annual
Reunion at an RM Establishment, Regional
Reunions at Merseyside, Eastney, in the South
West and occasionally at other locations, and
similar routines at the more active Branches. The
Association had representation at Westminster
Abbey for the Field of Remembrance, the
Cenotaph, the Graspan and Spean Bridge
Memorials and Zeebrugge whilst the Association
officers made innumerable visits to local branches.
By 1978, membership levelled out at about 7,000
members (3,000 from the serving Corps which
was now much smaller) with about 40 branches
in the UK and nine overseas. In the mid-1980s,
a significant policy change took place, the
subscriptions for serving personnel were now
paid for by the Corps using Corps Subscriptions.
This gave the Association a degree of financial
freedom and the opportunity to begin to
consider new priorities. At the same time RMA
officials were appointed to boards of other Corps
agencies and charities, the links between serving
and retired Corps were growing stronger.
In 1975, for the
first time the RMA
Reunion weekend
was held at CTCRM at
Lympstone where it has
remained ever since.
The RMA Book of Remembrance commemorating
all those who lost their lives in the Second
World War was dedicated in 1990 and CGRM
directed that ‘it should be suitably displayed
in the Church at CTCRM’, where it remains to
this day, with a page being turned each day.
An innovation in 1991 was the introduction
of a Band Concert and reception/buffet to
replace the customary dance that had been
held in the Great Hall of Exeter University.
The numbers attending were about 600.
Besides the miniature .22 shooting, the
weekend also held an Inter-branch competition
to provide a national Standard Bearer.
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