Northern Area Committee meets

Members of the HRFCA Northern Area Committee gathered at the Gordonville Road Army Reserve Centre in Inverness for their annual meeting. 

With some having travelled from as far afield as Shetland, pre-meeting refreshments on arrival were particularly welcome.

The full agenda for the meeting included updates from regular and reserve units as well as the service cadet organisations, all of which were well represented around the table.

The many diverse topics of interest included the growing air power footprint at RAF Lossiemouth, the successful re-equipping of 3 SCOTS with their new, highly-capable Foxhound vehicles, and the selection of a sea cadet from Highland District as one of only six from the UK to represent the country at the International Regatta in India.

The meeting was rounded off by the Lord-Lieutenant of Moray, Lt Col Grenville Johnston. He entertained and informed his audience, describing the work of Lord-Lieutenants and how they support the efforts of the RFCA. The Lord-Lieutenant explained how, with the ‘highly proactive’ support of Moray Council, he divides his time between Royal Visits, looking after Queen’s Awards for Enterprise and Voluntary Service, passing on congratulatory messages from Her Majesty at significant moments in people’s lives and, not least, supporting the reserve forces and cadets in his Lieutenancy.

Much was said too about the extremely high calibre of those selected to be Lord-Lieutenant’s Cadets, and the opportunities to nominate reservists and others for the highly-prestigious Lord-Lieutenant’s Certificate of Meritorious Service.

Animated discussion continued over lunch, overseen with an expert eye to detail by Ruth Matthews of the HRFCA Inverness Office.