He began by congratulating the kitchen and all the staff for an excellent evening; thanks which were echoed by all present. He reported that the Squadron Association was very healthy and strong, with 435 members, of which about 360 were active members who were in contact. Not only was that an excellent figure, but it had very pleasingly not changed over quite a few years. It was also very nice to see a lot of new faces at the Reunion, particularly those who hadn’t been before. The Chairmen welcomed all new attendees and hoped that they would attend the Reunion again next year and for many years to come. The next Reunion would be held at the RAF Club, in the same format on Saturday 21 October 2017.


The Centenary Celebrations at RAF Valley on 1 April 2016 had been a fantastic event. It was, of course, the final ‘shindig’ for the Squadron and, although the poor weather had spoiled the flying display, everyone who had attended had really enjoyed it.


Click here to read an account of the Centenary
Celebrations at RAF Valley on 1 April 2016:


The Chairman thanked Air Commodore Graham Pitchfork for hisForever Vigilant fantastic effort in writing his very special book, ‘Forever Vigilant’ – the definitive history of Naval Eight / 208 Squadron. It had not been an easy task, particularly as the deadline had been brought forward to meet the date of the Centenary Celebrations meaning that, all of a sudden, Graham had quite a few pages to write in a very short time. It had been hoped that there would be a few copies at the Reunion for those who had not yet purchased their own but, unfortunately, logistic problems ensued. Nonetheless, there was a page within the 2016 Newsletter advertising where members could still order a copy at a discounted price. Ultimately, if you hadn’t got a copy, you needed to buy one!


Referring to100AnnivDinner Speeches 04.pdf the Newsletter, the Chairman thanked Malcolm Ward for his extremely professional work in producing an excellent Newsletter, which was something that the Association could be very proud to send to all of its members to try and keep in touch with everybody. He also mentioned the Website, which had grown to over 750 pages online so, if anyone was interested in a particular era, they could find lots of photographs, anecdotes, stories and actual, real, proper Squadron history. The Webmaster’s target was to exceed 1000 pages so, if anyone had additional material, it would be gratefully received.


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