Description:Officials and guests of the Stone Branch of the Royal Air Forces Association (R.A.F.A.) are photographed at their first annual dinner, held in the Dog and Doublet Hotel, Sandon.
Mr P.C. Dutton (Vice-President) presided at the dinner in the absence of the Earl of Shrewsbury (President). Among the guests were the Chairman of the Stone Rural District Council, Mr Gilbert Harris and Mrs Harris, and the Chairman of the Stone Urban District Council Mr Arthur Swanick and Mrs Swanick.
The hope that the link between the Stone Branches of the British Legion and the Royal Air Forces Association would be cemented and strengthened, was expressed by Mr Stephen B. Johnson (President of the Stone Branch of the British Legion), speaking at the first annual dinner of the R.A.F.A., held in the Dog and Doublet Hotel, Sandon last Thursday evening. He said: “It is essential that both bodies maintained their separate identities, but they were both after the same goal of looking after ex-Servicemen and women in this country, seeing that they got what was due to them and that they had their rights and if necessary looking after their dependents”. He added: “People of this country do not appreciate the great work done by those who went out in the first and second great wars”.
Mr P.C. Sawyer (Chairman), in reply said: “That while the Stone Branch was a very small one, so far as the Association was concerned, he agreed wholeheartedly with Mr Johnson’s suggestions for co-operation with the British Legion. As Vice-President of the British Legion, I would like to say to all our members, join the Legion as well as the R.A.F.A., they do a very fine job of work and by pulling together, I am sure we can achieve more”.
This photograph and the details are an extract from an article published in the Stone Guardian on Saturday 29 January 1955.