Friends NewsHere you will find all the latest Friends news along with the occasional interesting snippets that comes our way concerning regimental matters.
If you would like to read some of our old news, then please visit the achives tab above which will take you to our news archives dating back as far as 2012. D-Day 82: Remembering the men of 1 Suffolk
Today, the men of 1 Suffolk are not far from our thoughts.
On this, the anniversary of D-Day, it is difficult to believe that it has been 22 years since the last official Suffolk Regiment pilgrimage to Normandy took place, with then a dwindling band of survivors of that campaign. Ten years before, many Suffolk D-Day men and their wives, travelled for the last of the 'big' commemorations to unveil a plaque on the bunker at Hillman, to remember the gallantry of their comrade, Private 'Tich' Hunter, who was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal for his actions on D-Day. Seen here at that event, were soem of the two coachloads of wonderful old warriors of the Battalion who visited Hillman for the event and to later unveil a memorial at the nearby Chateau de la Londe; the scene of another bitter engagement for the Battalion at the end of June 1944. Faces seen here include Ken Powter, George Rayson, Frank Varley, and Cecil Deller. These men were stalwarts and attended almost all the reunions and tours to Normandy since they started in 1983. They seldom talked much of their service to their families, but here, on the soil of their old battlefields, the stories flowed once more. We feel proud to have been there to hear their tales and learn of their service, days that will sadly, never be repeated. So, please spare a thought today, for all those men of the Battalion who served between D-Day and VE-Day, and especially the 215 officers and men, who paid the ultimate sacrifice and did not return. (Posted: 06/06/2026) Captain Larry Collier - 'M.O. for the Day'
Recently, we found this photograoh of the men of 1 South Lancs, taken in German just after the war had ended and there on the front row, was the former Medical Officer of 1 Suffolk, Captain Collier, smiling back at us - our 'M.O. for the Day!'
Larry Collier came to the Regiment on 14 August 1944 just after the Battalion's heavy fighting to take the crossroads at Coquard, southeast of Vire, but the following day whilst out on patrol colecting the wounded, he and two other colleagues were suddenly captured by the Germans. After several days of being moved from location to location as the Germans fell back in the Allied actions to close the 'Falaise Pocket', he made a daring escape with another Suffolk captive, Pte. Harold Speller with the pair managing to reach the Allied lines. Speller was sadly killed at Overloon, but Collier remained with the South Lancs through to VE-Day and beyond as this photo shows. Later he emigrated to Jamaica. Less is known about Collier's early life before he joined the Regiment, except that he had served as a doctor in the International Brigade in the Spanish Civil War...and there's a separate story in that no doubt... (Posted: 02/06/2026) Soldiers Badge Collection
We recently saw this fantastic soldiers keepsake featuring many nice, original badges from the various units who served in the NW Europe Campaign, and among those seen here was an original printed 'SUFFOLK' shoulder title.
The other units seen here include Eastern Command; with its famous snarling bulldog, the Beach Groups anchor (issued to those who organised, administered and kept open the beachheads), Guards Armoured Division with accompanyong embroidered Coldstream, Scots and Irish Guards titles, a printed title to the Reconnaissance Corps and the 'Lion Rampant' of the 15th (Scottish) Division. Printed Sufolk shoudler titles came in around 1941 and were worn throughout the war by various Suffolk units. The first introduction of embroidered shoulder titles appears to come in Germany after the war had ended. These all apear to have been sewn onto a German Army 'Toque' a hollow sleeve of material worn as a scarf, neck-warmer or as a hat. The nearest British equiliant woudl be the 'Cap Comforter' but despite the moth damage, its good to see a period example of a Suffolk title collected by another soldier at the time. (Posted: 28/05/2026) Colours Up!
A chance discovery of a photo album of a Royal Anglian Regiment officer, revealed in amongst a set of photos of Radfan, this picture of a flagpole bearing the flags of the various units stationed there, including that of the Suffolk Regiment.
In between those of the Grenadier Guards, can be seen the small yellow duster of 1st Suffolk with its castle and key and numeral XII. Therefore, thisofficer must have served in the Suffolk and the East Anglian Regiments' before he was transfered into the new 'larger' regiment when it was formed in 1964. We are surmising that this is probably a field exercise or a range day perhaps on Cyprus (as we can see the Cypriot Lion painted on the rear of one of the Landrovers on the right), as by the time the Regiment returned home in mid-1959, the new style of regimental flag (with a superimposed black Britannia of the Royal Norfolk Regiment) was already in use, so we are guessing that this is pre-1959, but we’d welcome any help to confirm this. Posted: 15/05/2026 12th Foot CDVs Coming Up For Sale
Coming up for sale soon at auction is an exceptional group of Victorian Carte-de-Visite photographs of Officers of the Twelfth Regiment taken in the 1860s and 1870s.
They belonged to a collector who speciailised in collecting imgaes of British Army officers forage caps that showed regimental numerals. His collection it was said, contained several hundred of these images. Of interest to us are a few cards one of which shows an Officer of the Regiment in frock coat and flat-topped forage cap bearing the numeral ‘12’. His long sideburns show a common trait as carried out by officers who served with the 1st Battalion in New Zealand in the 1860s and it took some years to get them to remove them even after they returned to the UK, so it can be dated to around 1968-70. Such images are rare, so it fascinating to see them crop up like this. Posted: 10/05/2026 Unknown Variant of Suffolk Yeomanry Cap Badge
Can anyone help us here? We missed out on this badge recently at auction, but can anyone provide any photographic evidence that an ‘unvoiced’ eg. ‘solid’ cap badge was ever worn by men of the Suffolk Yeomanry?
The badge seen here of the Loyal Suffolk Hussars is pretty distinctive withe the stylised castle of Bury St Edmunds, and the white metal scroll encompassing the date of their formation (1793) which is normally very carefully fretted to remove the material between the lower scroll and the date, but this example is solid, yet we can find on reference to it in any of our books or in any available photographs. During the Great War, solid economy ‘war service’ badges were produced in a single material to save the expense of producing intricate designs, allowing war efforts to be given to other more important industries, so is this a genuine badge - as it still retains a white metal scroll? or is it a recent fake, designed deliberately to deceive? If any one knows of a photo, do let us know…also does anyone have any proof that an all white metal version was worn? - we missed out on one of these as well! Posted: 05/05/2026 Gor Blimey!
We were looking for something else earlier on today, when we rediscoved this craking photograph of Private Harry Randall of the 8th Battalion, taken in the winter of 1915-16 on the Western front.
A lovely image with his 'stinker' or goatskin jacket, he wears the 'Gor Blimey' cap to complete his eccletic ensemble. The backdrop of an old carpet against the farmyard wall, infers that the photograph was taken pretty close to the front line. We'll be writing more about Harry and his uniform in the next Friends magazine, so if your interested, please pop along to the 'Join Us' page and sign up, then you will be able to read about him and his outfit. (Posted: 01/05/2026) Private 'Teddy' Walker
Recently, we saw this little clipping of Private Albert ‘Teddy’ Walker come up for sale and being impulsive, we brought it. When it arrived, it was contained in a hand sewn plastic wallet, finished in khaki thread, a close comrade clearly wished to remember him, exactly teh size of a solider Paybook, so whoever kept it and made its potective sleeve, must have been very close to Teddy.
Teddy was sadly killed by shellfire when ‘D’ Company of 1 Suffolk were moving forward to reinforce their comrades who were battling to take theChateau de la Londe on 28 June 1944. Together with Teddy, his Company Commander, Major Papillon and his Batman, Private Bradley and his wireless operator, Private Hammond, were also killed. Many men were badly wounded inclsuing Teddy's best mate, George Walstow, who later wrote to his parents asking for news of Teddy as he has been wounded at Tinchebrai six-weeks later and lost a foot. Could it have been George that kept this cutting? Posted: 30/04/2026 Remembering Fred
In March we received the sad news that Friend Fred Mullender had passed away. Fred was an early Friends member and often sent us snippets of stories for our magazines. He was born and bred in Lowestoft and was a founder member of the Lowestoft Branch of the Old Comrades Association, deciding that he was fed up of travelling to nearby Beccles where he couldn’t have a drink!
Fred was called up for National Service in 1951 and after basic training at Colchester, he joined 1 Suffolk in Malaya early the following year. He served with 4 Platoon, ‘B’ Company for all of his service in Malaya and he contemplated staying in the Army but his old firm were most keen to have him back and so the offer was just too good to refuse and so he left the army behind for over 40 years until in his retirement, he rediscovered his old pals and returned to the Old Dozen. Fred was always cheerful and you never saw him unhappy. He will be greatly missed. (Posted: 01/04/2026 Engine Nameplate Sells For £15,500.00
The news of the railway world of late has been the sale at auction of the cast brass nameplate to locomotive 2845 (later 61645) LNER 4-6-0 B-17 Class ‘The Suffolk Regiment’ which sold for a whopping £15.5K!
This seems a massive amount for a lump od old brass, but such things are desirable. The previous owner, so the story goes, was a wealthy local lad who had a name plate from virtually every locomotive of that class which passed through Ipswich between 1935 and 1959, including other famous B17s named after football clubs and great country houses (hence the name of their class is often referred to as the 'Sandringham' or 'Footballers' class). The plate was reputedly sold at auction some twenty-five years ago for over £20,000.00, so perhaps £15.5K seems a little cheap but the nameplate came on a dedicated stand replicating eth original wheelarch, and also the separately cast, Regimental cap badge that was placed underneath it in the space of apple green LNER livery (in its later form it was changed to British Rail dark 'Brunswick Green') The other is in the Suffolk Regiment Museum where it was placed in the mid-1960s, having originally been given to the then only serving regiment to carry the county title; the Suffolk and Cambridgeshire Regiment (TA) who presented it to the museum. It would be great to get the two together again for a reunion. Posted: 28/03/2026 Magazine No. 50!
Yes, that is correct, our 50 magazine has just been posted out to all members.
An historic achievement for us as an organisation and all of our members. Here's to the next fifty magazines and many more years of Suffolk Regiment history.....but lets not forget that in 2028, the Friends will be 20 years old, so we're planning what to do for our 'big' birthday. (Posted: 16/03/2026) Remembering 'Pop'
In December, the Friends lost Cecil Gillingham, known to all as ‘Pop’ who served his National Service with 1 Suffolk in Cyprus, 1958-59.
As No. 23450877 was called up in early 1958 and after completing his basic training at Gibraltar Barracks where he became a champion shot in his training squad, Pop was sent to Cyprus in April 1958 and served in a variety of locations including Peristerona and Nicosia, before coming home with the Battalion in 1959 and after a brief period of leave, he went to Germany to complete the remainder of his service with the newly formed 1/1st East Anglian Regiment (Royal Norfolk and Suffolk). Pop was a lovely quiet man, who was a great supporter of both the Friends and the Ipswich and District Suffolk Regiment Old Comrades as well as being our Chairman’s, uncle. Like many, he only returned to the Regiment in later life after his retirement but Pop will be greatly missed. Posted: 06/02/2026 A Suffolk Wolsey Helmet?
Recently we spotted this rather lovely Wolsey sun helmet for sale but we wondered whether it was quite right?
The Regiment’s distinctive three point puggaree (the band on cloth wrapped around the crown) can be seen, but is points are in the wrong place. I could have moved but normally the dips are at the back and above the temples. Curious too is the Suffolk slip-on shoulder title seen worn during the Great War, but at present, we can find no evidence that it was worn as a patch upon the sun helmet. It’s certainly got some age to it, but is it genuine? Can anyone out there provide us some photographic proof to support the upgrade and the patch? Posted: 15/01/2026 A Very Happy New Year
A very Happy New Year to you all.
We are going to try very hard this year to make a concerted effort to bring you more news, but with busy working and family lives, something always seems to get in the way, but hopefully, we'll be able to bring you a few snippets of Regimental news and trivia throughout the year, so do keep checking back to see whats happening. If you feel inclined, please do think about joining us. We need new members more than ever now, so please do drop us a line and 'hop on board!' Posted: 01/01/2026 |
