Man who aims to change ‘stuffy’ image of Legion

A NEW chairman of the Henley branch of the Royal British Legion has been appointed.

Richard Pinches, 59, who was previously its vice-chairman, has taken over from Anne Evans, who stepped down on June.

Mr Pinches, who runs Meadows Farm Studios in York Road, Henley, also runs the annual Henley Poppy Appeal. This year’s appeal will be launched in Market Place tomorrow (Saturday).

He said: “I am excited to be the chair. When Anne resigned I was naturally given the offer of the role and I gratefully accepted because the legion is something that I am interested in helping with.

“I turned it down a year ago as I was just too busy. I just had other commitments on but I have got the capacity now to manage my time better.

“I am hoping to push the membership forward with greater numbers and more engagement with our town, make it more appealing to a wider audience.

“I definitely want to try and take it to a younger demographic. I think the perception of Legion nationally is that it is stuffy and I really want to try and change that at least at our local level.

“The luncheon talks are our main monthly event which we have. The last one, which was our annual meeting, I gave a talk about the significance of Pegasus Bridge. With more talks of that quality we can hopefully attract a wider audience.

“Luncheon talks are open to members and non-members and guests, so maybe some of the guests come, they might like to sign up.”

Mr Pinches joined the Legion in 2017 after volunteering with Poppy Appeal, soon after his father Peter “Ginger” Pinches, died in 2015, aged 95. He served with the 8th Army in North Africa from 1941-1943 during the Second World War.

He said: “My father was a veteran of the Second World War and I just thought I would give something back. It’s really as simple as that. I started poppy collecting first and then just thought I would join the legion as a member, just to go to the luncheon talks and be part of that community.”

Mr Pinches also gives talks about military periods and is a war re-enactor. He said: “I joined a re-enactment group that portrayed the second battalion Ox and Bucks. They were the ones that were responsible for the assault on Pegasus Bridge.

“I joined them about seven years ago and this is the funny thing, I didn't know about what they did but my father’s farm that I used to live on, used to be split between the border of Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire, which is the simple reason why I joined.

“Then, when I joined them, I found out that they were responsible for this amazing feat on D-Day and that the battalion is actually quite iconic.”

Mr Pinches’s father was a Desert Rat in the Second World War and so he also dresses up as one under his alter ego “The Lone Rat”.

He said: “I portray a desert scenes at public history shows with 1940-period tents. I put down fake sand and I use fake rocks. Lots of my equipment I display, including my jeep, which is original.”

Other periods he re-enacts are the Napoleonic and Boer wars and the Jacobite rebellion.

Mr Pinches said: “It is similar to the Poppy Appeal in a sense as we are actually giving back. We are not here to glorify war, we are here to commemorate those that fought and served.

“We are trying to teach the history lesson to younger generations in order that such nasty parts of our history are not repeated.”

Mr Pinches has also taken on another job running Western Desert Battlefield tours in Northen Africa. It started after he had booked on a tour and the tour guide had a heart attack and asked Mr Pinches if he could run the tour instead and he agreed.

He said: “It's where my father fought in Egypt in 1942. I've been there twice and for the 80th anniversary of the Battle of El Alamein. I went there myself but ended up leading the tour because my tour guide had a heart attack.

“Taking the whole group of 21 guests from around the world and who were there to follow in the footsteps of their relations. It's a passion because the desert is a passion of mine. I am hoping to pass that passion on to the guests that I can bring into Egypt.

“Walking the ground is a phrase used by historians and it's typically the only way to really put yourself in the shoes of the people who were there in the war, who fought and sometimes died.

“That is my new latest thing, just to add another hat to the many I wear. There are loads of battlefields and there's loads of cemeteries over there for the fallen. It all ties in very beautifully with the legion and what I do for the veterans there. It really is a nice circle.

Mr Pinches is helped with his reenacting by his son Benedict, 31, who changed jobs so he could take part more. His other children, Daniel and Eleanor don’t take part but like to watch their father.

Mr Pinches said: “I would say 90 per cent of the shows I go to he’s with me and he dresses up. When we currently display as the Long-Range Desert Group is a special force precursor of the SAS. But he looks very much like a special forces operative Paddy Mayne. He became the leader of the SAS in the desert.

“He was a tough cookie with a big shaggy beard and my son’s got a really big, shaggy beard so they look similar.”

The Henley Poppy Appeal launch event tomorrow (Saturday) in Market Place, runs from 9.30am to 2.30pm and will feature a military vehicle display and music from Sam Brown’s ukulele band.

Mayor Rory Hunt will receive the first poppy at about 10.30am.

Volunteers with the Henleybranch of the Legion will also be collecting for poppies from Sunday to November 11 at the train station, Waitrose in King’s Road, Tesco, off Reading Road, and outside Starbucks in Market Place.