It was an absolute honour and a privilege to have Past Master Carman HRH The Princess Royal, along with so many of our armed forces personnel including Carmen at our Joint Services Awards Dinner.

The Master was delighted to have had so much positive feedback regarding the evening. It was incredibly important to him that our our armed forces award winners felt the fullest of recognition, respect and appreciation that we Carmen have for them and all of their colleagues.

The evening was a celebration of support to the armed forces which comes at a crucial time in world history as the news of the Russian invasion of Ukraine hit us in the early hours of the following morning.

Whilst no one is really shocked at the news, the instability and devastation this will cause will reverberate for a long time.
The actual impact on our armed forces is yet unknown but we hope that knowing they have such public support is key to morale and cohesion.
This event is one that our award winners in particular will not forget. To have had an opportunity to speak with Her Royal Highness, The Princess Royal, is a fabulous experience and many were bowled over by her grace and good humour!

Our guest speaker was Rear Admiral Steve Moorhouse, who as a Commodore, had the privilege of Formation Command with CTF150, a multi-national task force charged with delivering maritime security across the western Indian Ocean and most recently the UK Carrier Strike Group for CSG21, the inaugural Queen Elizabeth Strike Group operational deployment to the Indo-Pacific.

His speech was extremely compelling, informative, interesting, entertaining and touched on the great importance of our military capabilities. This heralded the dawning of a day that saw Russia invade Ukraine in one of the darkest days for Europe since World War Two.

God bless our armed forces who serve us both at home and abroad.