Every year, it\u2019s only at the eleventh hour that I remember to ring Sam Trott about my village fun day parade.
\nBut every time, he\u2019s always accommodating\u2014one step ahead, in fact, because he leads the procession.
\n\u2018It\u2019s all right,\u201d he says, \u201cwe\u2019ve got it in the diary.\u201d
\nSam\u2019s our pace man, he keeps the straggling parade of village shields together. Without him, we\u2019d be an unruly rabble. At the head of the parade, he carries his Royal British Legion banner with professionalism and pride, although I was a bit worried this year when the owner of two donkeys (the fete\u2019s theme was Summer Holiday) walking either side of Sam said it was quite possible the animals might have to stop at some point to answer a call of nature or just to be contrary.
\nI was so concerned Sam would feel offended. He was nothing of the sort.
\n\u201cI won\u2019t do it again unless the donkeys are in it,\u201d says Sam, with a characteristic twinkle in his eye.
\nHe\u2019s been leading Broadwindsor Fun Day parade for many years now, ever since I, as one of the organisers, realised he was the local standard bearer for the RBL. He\u2019s been in the Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall five times, carried the standard at parades and memorial services and been a part of the guard of honour at the funerals of old soldiers and military personnel killed in action. He\u2019s also carried the Dorset county standard on several occasions. So who better than this calm and capable man to be our village fete figurehead? And he is always so obliging.
\nThe Broadwindsor flag is now at Bovington, as the branch, like so many others, is no longer running because of dwindling numbers. The original flag hangs in the village church and Sam now carries the Beaminster branch\u2019s standard. Sam, 81, will be busy on Remembrance Sunday, with three services at Drimpton, Beaminster, where there is an afternoon parade from the fire station to St Mary\u2019s Church, and Broadwindsor, where a lone trumpeter plays Last Post from the open bell ringing chamber.
\nAs usual, Sam\u2019s wife, Mary, 77, will be running the annual poppy coffee morning at Broadwindsor Craft Centre on Thursday 5 November from 10am until noon. As Broadwindsor and District Poppy Organiser (\u201cI\u2019d love to hand it over to someone else now,\u201d she says), Mary has a small army of collectors to call upon, including Sam, who has one of the biggest patches, covering outlying farms and places up the narrowest of lanes.
\n\u201cI wasn\u2019t even in the British Legion to start off with,\u201d Sam recalls. He used to play darts, dominoes and skittles every now and then around the district with other members.
\n\u201cAnd then I was asked if I\u2019d come along to a meeting at Broadwindsor. I thought as I was playing the games I\u2019d just as well join,\u201d Sam says.
\n\u201cOne night, I was picked up and was told we couldn\u2019t go straight to the meeting because we had to pick up a standard. They didn\u2019t know who was going to take it on, because Ron Wilson, the chap who\u2019d done it, had retired. It was the AGM, in 2001, and they were looking for a standard bearer. I thought someone else would do it but there was dead silence. I said I didn\u2019t mind having a go and that\u2019s how it happened.\u201d
\nHours of drilling by Nita Spencer, from Beaminster, who had been a past winner of Women\u2019s National Standard Bearer of the Year, taught him all he needed to know.
\n\u201cShe was kind and strict and a wonderful help to me.\u201d
\nNot long after, the branch was looking for a poppy appeal organiser and Mary was persuaded to become involved.
\n\u201cI said I\u2019d do it for five years and it\u2019s been eleven or twelve now,\u201d she says.
\nSam, who was born and brought up at Fishpond, near Bridport, was working on a farm at Pildson when he met Mary. It was also when his national service call-up papers came.
\n\u201cIt was deferred for six months because I was in a reserved occupation and then for another six months. Then the call-up papers came and I thought, I don\u2019t want to stay on a farm all my life, I want to go in the army.\u201d
\nAfter two years, he joined up as a regular soldier in the 5th Dragoon Guards, leaving a year later with the rank of lance corporal.
\n\u201cI didn\u2019t fancy the infantry, all that walking everywhere. I wanted to drive tanks. We were going to the Gaza Strip but it didn\u2019t happen. We went to Catterick and then ended up at Bovington, which meant I could come home every weekend.\u201d
\nAfter his military service, Sam came back to west Dorset, putting his new skills to good use to become a lorry driver, retiring in 1999 from Yeovil Plant Hire, where he had been running the depot at Taunton.
\nHe will be at home in the bungalow he\u2019s shared with Mary for the past forty-eight years to watch this year\u2019s Festival of Remembrance, which commemorates and honours all those who have lost their lives in conflicts, at home. Sam is keenly aware of all the work involved.
\nParticipants have to be at the Royal Albert Hall at seven-thirty in the morning. They have two rehearsals and a packed lunch (which Sam always spent with Mary across the road in Kensington Gardens). The event itself is both enjoyable and moving at the same time.
\nSays Mary: \u201cIt\u2019s a very emotional experience and makes me cry.\u201d
\nFor Sam, it\u2019s a proud memory.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s funny,\u201d he says. \u201cBefore I was even in the Royal British legion, I\u2019d always wanted to go to the Festival of Remembrance. I used to think \u2018that would be a nice thing to do\u2019, never ever thinking I would be in it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Every year, it\u2019s only at the eleventh hour that I remember to ring Sam Trott about my village fun day parade. But every time, he\u2019s always accommodating\u2014one step ahead, in fact, because he leads the procession. \u2018It\u2019s all right,\u201d he says, \u201cwe\u2019ve got it in the diary.\u201d Sam\u2019s our pace man, he keeps the straggling […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2489,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[36],"class_list":["post-2488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-articles","tag-margery-hookings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2488"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2488\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}