RMC Annual Review 2020-21 digital (1) - Flipbook - Page 24
A Brief History of the Royal Marines Association
When the serving Corps finally vacated Eastney
in 1991, the Museum offered the RMA the use of
two rooms of the old Officers’ Mess Building. The
Association had entered a long period of stability,
an annual programme of events unfolded each
year, budgets and priorities were considered and
a steady rhythm of life prevailed – crisis was
inevitable. A major review of the rules took place
in 1994. Central Office staff focused more and
more on supporting branches and the complexities
of new regulations required by the 1993 Charities
Act along with the more demanding accounting
practice now deemed appropriate. An anomaly
that existed since the Association had formed
was to become untenable; members could join
or renew their membership either on the central
role or at branches — over time this meant there
would be no centralised membership role, a
problem first identified in 1946. Central Office
had no way of knowing how many members
the organisation actually had unless branches
returned timely records and financial returns
— not every branch did. Tension developed
between the centre, regions, and branches over the
allocation of subscriptions and the administration
of memberships, change was coming. Increasingly
the members of the Association became involved
in welfare and charitable activities, local branches
were encouraged to fund raise and make donations
directly. By the end of the 1990s, legacy donations
had grown the reserves to over £600,000, but
running costs could still outpace income.
Veterans provide a support and guidance role that
supports the training team but is very careful
not to replace the professional staff’s work. A
generation of new recruits have benefited from the
dedication and experience of members of the RMA.
The relationship between the Association and
the Corps Museum grew closer. The chair of the
RMA also became a trustee of the Royal Marines
Museum whilst free admission was given to
Museum to RMA members for the first time.
A memorial garden opened in the grounds of
the Royal Marines Museum and Portsmouth
RMA, the School of Music, local cadets’ units
and the Museum team started to hold an annual
Remembrance Sunday parade. The RMA
generously supported the development of the
Museum with regular donations of over £10,000.
The start of the new millennium maintained
the ongoing renewal and reinvigoration of the
Association. The old role of General Secretary was
replaced, the business of the Association would be
led by a Chief Executive with much more wideranging role and its offices relocated to Whale
Island, bringing the Central Office back into
the heart of Corps activity, alongside the Office
of the Commandant General, a position it had
missed since the days in Queen Anne’s Mansion.
Just as in WW2, the long campaigns in Iraq and
Afghanistan from 2001-14, bought changes to
the needs of the serving corps and its veterans.
The story of the RMA now becomes much more
closely linked to that of other Corps agencies and
this period of change can only be described by
looking outside the Association. Jonathan Ball,
the second CEO of The Royal Marines Charitable
Trust Fund (RMCTF) and now CEO of RMA–The
Royal Marines Charity, takes up the story.
As far back as the RMOCA days, branches had
welfare officers who visited ailing members
and found ways to support them. The
practice continued with the Association.
Welfare has become an
important part of the
role of the RMA and
not just for veterans.
Royal Marines now make up as much as 4-5%
of British armed forces but their unique skills
mean they provide 45- 50% of UK Special
Forces, so they were disproportionately
exposed to threat. As a consequence, though
they won 25% of awards for bravery in
Afghanistan, they also sustained 13% of
deaths and 16% of the serious injuries.
As with the wider bow wave of public support
for the Armed Forces which led to the
establishment of Help for Heroes, there was
The recruit mentoring programme started in 1987
between members of the Exeter and Exmouth
branches has flourished for over 30 years.
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www.rma-trmc.org
a surge of support from the Royal Marines
Corps Family to support the injured and
families of the bereaved. This manifested itself
in a number of initiatives and organisations
being established to support the Corps Family,
among them The C Group, Commando 999, Go
Commando and Help Our Wounded. RMA also
founded a Shop based in Stonehouse Barracks
Plymouth, to generate profits which could be
fed back into support for the Corps Family.
to provide a more efficient and joined up
service to beneficiaries. During the 350th
year, 2014, RMA adopted a 5-year plan to
refresh and renew the Association, which at
an early stage led to the growth of members
from 8-10,000. In June, the trustees of RMA,
RMCTF, The C Group and RNRMC met to
address the possibility that the number
of separate organisations was leading to
confusion amongst beneficiaries concerning
which organisation to approach for help, gaps
in provision, and fratricide in fundraising.
The Boards subsequently committed to
merger in order to provide a one stop shop for
support for the Corps Family, which would
work in conjunction with the Corps, the
Welfare service, RNRMC, other Naval Service
charities and wider agencies and charities
so that gaps in provision could be addressed
by signposting to the most effective source
of support without reinventing the wheel.
The Corps itself controlled over 20 charitable
funds, principally the 1939 War Fund (now
the General Fund of RMA–The Royal Marines
Charity), originally set up to provide welfare
and amenities support to the Corps in the
Second World War, and the Royal Marines
Benevolent Fund (RMBF), established in 1997
by the merging of a number of benevolent
funds in order to support individuals and
families in significant need. All these funds
were brought together in 2008 into the Royal
Marines Charitable Trust Fund (RMCTF),
which was registered as a Charity in April
2010, though still administered by the Corps
Secretariat. RMCTF had very wide charitable
objects, including the efficiency of the Corps
and assistance to individuals in need, which
almost matched the objects of RMA.
The first merger took place on 1 January 2016
between RMCTF and The C Group, which
had been set up in 2009 at CTCRM to assist
those medically discharged from the Corps
into work. The new entity took the name The
Royal Marines Charity (TRMC), and moved
its registered address from Whale Island to
CTCRM, the heart and home of the Corps.
Further work to merge with RMA took longer
due to the complexities of merging a nonincorporated association with an incorporated
charity, the need to persuade the Members
of RMA to surrender independence after
over 70 years (RMOCA had remained in
existence as a separate organisation until
the 1970s despite the establishment of RMA),
and the need to win the case with the RNRMC
Board for a membership organisation
to become part of the RNRMC Group.
A campaign to raise
a further £6M by the
Corps Birthday in 2014,
the 350th anniversary,
was launched, and in
2011 the first CEO of
RMCTF was appointed.
In 2018 annual national subscriptions were
removed as part of an existing commitment
from TRMC to underwrite the delivery of
membership services and events, and after
further final work, the merger of RMA
with TRMC was achieved in April 2019
with the new entity’s legal name as ‘Royal
Marines Association – The Royal Marines
Charity’, operating under the simpler name
The C Group became a formal subsidiary
charity of RMCTF, and RMCTF itself became
a subsidiary of the Royal Navy and Royal
Marines Charity, itself brought into existence
by the Royal Navy in 2007 to bring together
almost 90 Naval charitable funds in order
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