FORMER soldier Andrew Simkins OBE told a meeting of Crewkerne & District University of the Third Age (U3A) about his work with the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust and how it led to a meeting with the Queen.
The Queen, who is patron of the trust, hosted a reception at Buckingham Palace last year to mark the 50th anniversary of the trust, which awards fellowships to men and women of all backgrounds to travel overseas and come back with innovative ideas that can improve the quality of life for people in the UK.
Thanks to a grant from the trust, Andrew decided to study the support given to services’ veterans in the USA and Chile in 2008. It was a bad time, he recalled, because the Army was getting poor press as a result of the abuse allegations coming out of Iraq.
It was during a Veterans of Foreign Wars conference in the United States that he saw President George W. Bush and Barack Obama, who was then a senator.
He has continued to champion veterans’ issues through his involvement in a number of organisations, including his work as president of 656 Squadron Association.
Andrew, who lives at Winsham, served with the Army Air Corps and completed operational tours in Dhofar, Oman, Northern Ireland, Afghanistan and Bosnia-Herzegovina. He was mentioned in despatches and awarded an OBE in 2006 for his military and charity work.
He said that he felt privileged to have served in the Armed Forces for 37 years and wanted to put something back into the various veteran organisations which serve our communities so well.
“Since 2008 support for veterans has increased dramatically,” he told the meeting at the Henhayes Community Centre.
“Groups such as Help for Heroes have sprung up all over the country.”
