Post by KG on Oct 6, 2008 19:57:00 GMT
Yesterday I met up with some old friends and many heroes that attended a sad farewell to an organisation that had united the brave Merchant Navy seamen from South Wales that had served in the Russian convoys during World War II.
Talking to Commodor Oliver Lindsay, 83, current and final president. of the Cardiff and District branch of the Russian Convoy Club, he explained that the Merchant Navy veterans' group has been forced to disband 21 years after it was founded.
"The Cardiff and District branch of the Russian Convoy Club has been forced to disband because so many branch members have died or become too frail to continue".
Since the Cardiff district branch was founded 21 years ago, it has brought together South Wales men who risked their lives to ensure supplies reached our Russian allies during World War II.
Founded in December 1987, the Cardiff and district branch of the Russian Convoy Club met monthly at Riverside Conservative Club and acquired its own standard in 1991.
The disbanding of the branch follows the folding of the national Russian Convoy Club in August 2005.
The club standard was presented to St Mary the Virgin Church, Bute Street, Cardiff, because the church houses a stained glass memorial commemorating seamen who perished in the Russian Convoys.
Club member Harold Boudier said: “The closing of the branch is sad but inevitable. “We are grateful that the standard and the stained glass window will be in the safe keeping of the Church in Wales as a lasting memory to those who died.”
We shalL not forget:
The Russian Convoy Club South Wales Branch, all past and present members.
We attempt to record the event of the laying up of the Branch Standard at The Russian Convoy Memorial Window in the Parish Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Butetown, Cardiff. Sunday 5th October 2008 at the 11.00 Mass.
"Let us remember before god those who served on the Rusian Convoys and whose memory is honoured here.
They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old,
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condem.
At the going down of the sun, and in the morning
We shall remember them.
"Reverand Father, I commit this sacred standard of the South Wales Branch of the Russian Convoy Club to you as vicar of this parish of Cardiff for safe keeping in this holy church for evermore"
The Standard was placed in position at the side of The Russian Convoy Memorial Window in the Parish Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Butetown, Cardiff on Sunday, 5th October 2008.
St Mary's - hub of the Docks; Her spires dominate Bute town or the old "Tiger Bay" is a most worthy resting place for the Standard and the memory of all "That Have Crossed the Bar"
When actress Hayley Mills returned to Cardiff 35 years after making the film Tiger Bay, The Anglican Church of St Mary the Virgin, Bute Street, was the only part of the area that hadn't changed.
Known locally as St Mary's the Docks, the giant building with its twin towers has dominated the region for more than 150 years, a focal point for a thriving community, until a demolition and building programme scattered the faithful far and wide.
"It doesn't matter where they are in the country, many people
still look on St Mary's as their parish ...
The Standard now laid to rest, but hopefully never forgotten. Will be forever part of Cardiff and Welsh history and Maritime History and we hope as many have simply asked for before that: "Let those that come after them, remember them". LEST WE FORGET.