Local RBL members hold minute’s silence and support veteran’s campaign

IT’S been a busy few weeks for Westbury Royal British Legion. 

The group observed a minute’s silence for the Duke of Edinburgh at the town’s cenotaph in April while earlier this month, members were among hundreds of people who joined former defence minister Johnny Mercer in a London march to support veterans.

In London, a rally of bikers from campaign group Rolling Thunder UK organised the event for VE Day – Saturday 8th May – after two former paratroopers accused of the murder of an Official IRA leader were acquitted at Belfast Crown Court when prosecutors offered no further evidence at their trial.

March attenders assembled close to the statue of Sir Winston Churchill outside parliament as demonstrators waved flags and brandished placards.

Westbury RBL secretary Norman Fenton, who was there with branch chairman, John Titley, told White Horse News, “The event was a great success, with speeches from [a British soldier involved in the case] Dennis Hutchings and Johnny Mercer, there were around 7000 bikes plus a large number on foot.  

“We formed up in the Mall in front of Buckingham Palace.”

Johnny Mercer previously called on the government to include veterans who served in Northern Ireland in a new Bill to protect soldiers from prosecutions.

The former Army officer left the government in April  after it emerged the Overseas Operations Act would not include soldiers who served in Northern Ireland.