Home of the Infantry Regiments of Berkshire and Wiltshire
Scouts Visit Saturday 27th September
Dan McAleavy, a disabled young man recently submitted an application for a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund so that a group of young Air Scouts could study the events that saw the 1st Battalion The Wiltshire Regiment mobilise on 4 August 1914. This was to cover their deployment from their Barracks in Tidworth on 13th August until their arrival in Mons and subsequent Retreat from Mons. Dan’s project is fairly ambitious and the whole project was to be filmed.
Having been successful in obtaining the grant, the Scouts major objective was to retrace the actual route that 1st Battalion, The Wilshire Regiment took from Mons to the action at Le Cateau, the scene of another Battle Honour for the Wiltshire Regiment. The Recce of the route and liaising for the Camp sites and other administration was undertaken in January 2014 and the re-enactment of the Retreat was carried out 100 years to the day that 1st Wiltshire’s undertook the retreat between 23rd and 27th August.
Dan will be giving a presentation, which will include the finished film footage, to The Chippenham Royal British Legion as part of his condition of gaining the grant and to gain the final pieces of the jigsaw puzzle to those events that happened 100 years ago, twenty of the Scouts and their leaders attended a presentation put together by volunteer Martin McIntyre and on hand to supervise the handling of the weapons was Peter Shorten.
The images show Mac in full flow oh the subject matter and the film crew at work.