Why is the Gordon Messenger Centre (GMC) – a military community hub based at the Commando Training Centre Royal Marines, Lympstone, Devon – of such value to all who use it?
As we count down to the impending construction of a garden here, we’ve spoken to some of those who use it, to find out…
John Kirby, age 78, was a Corporal in the Royal Mechanical and Electrical Engineers for 15 years, and comes along to the veterans’ brunch every Thursday for a bacon bap.
“I love coming here to be with other people who have been through similar experiences,” he says. “Whether your Army, Air Force or Navy, you’ve all been through similar training and all had some excellent and lousy times, so everyone understands you here.
John served in Northern Ireland and was discharged around the same time as the Falklands War began.
“It was an absolutely brilliant time of my life,” he continued. “I went into the army because I wanted to get away from home. I had good and bad times, of course; the bad times you forget, but the good times were absolutely brilliant, like the camaraderie and where we got to go.
“I was sat in the office one day, and the boss came in and said, ‘I’ve just been told I’ve got to send a Class One to Canada for a detachment, but I’m not going to send you because you’re getting married this summer’.
“You can get married anytime, but this was a one-off opportunity, so I phoned up my fiancé and said we needed to postpone the wedding. She said, ‘fair enough’. She knew the army was my life.”
***The GMC June Best Sanctuary Garden, located at the Gordon Messenger Centre (GMC), a tri-service community hub at CTCRM, Lympstone, has been sponsored by SSAFA Devon The Armed Forces Charity, thanks to a generous legacy gift by former SSAFA Devon volunteer June Best. It is being built by volunteers from the military community, for the military community, and delivered by Splash Projects. Further substantial sponsorship has come from RMA-The Royal Marines Charity (donated as a legacy gift by a former Royal Marine through the Tavistock Freemasons/Sanctuary Lodge), with significant additional support from Vistry Group.***
