VIDEO: Armed Forces Day 2024 in Brindleyplace

Take two minutes to watch some of the highlights of the Armed Forces Day 2024 commemorations in Brindleyplace – and see what you missed!

Surgeon General Major General Tim Hodgetts CBE QHS OStJ PhD MMEd MBA MBBS CMgr FRCP FRCSEd FRCEM FIMCRCSEd FRGS met members of Broad Street’s Military Preparation Training College (MPTC) to offer words of encouragement about any f future careers with the three Armed Forces.

He then addressed the crowd, which included Standard-bearing veterans and members of their families as well as musicians from Coleshill Youth Brass.

Recalling how he had lived in central Birmingham since 2001 when he helped to set up the Royal Centre for Defence Medicine at the QE, the Surgeon General’s address included tributes to family members who supported the Armed Forces personnel.

“Armed Forces Day is different (to Armistice Day on 11 November), it’s a celebration of our people who are serving, and who have served, and the commitment made by their families.

“It’s a celebration of our youth organisations in uniform, our cadet forces, and their importance in building life skills, team work and individual confidence for leadership within the next generation.

“And it’s a chance for you to know your Armed Forces a little bit better and to see the human beings inside these smart, wool uniforms and to learn a little bit more about what they do to keep our nation secure.

“Armed Forces Day takes place on the last Saturday in June, as close as possible to the date the first Victoria Cross was awarded on the 27th of June, 1857.

“The Victoria Cross, many will know, is our highest military award for bravery, for gallantry in the face of the enemy and is, understandably, very rare.

“Only three people have been awarded this medal twice and two of those were doctors – Noel Chavasse and Arthur Martin-Leake – who put the safety of their patients before their own.

“Do remember that service personnel can only achieve what they do with the support and sacrifice of their families and that SAFFA, the Armed Forces Charity, was specifically established to look after those families in times of need while doing so much more today through extending a helping hand to both the veterans and servicing personnel communities.”

Mike Olley, general manager of Westside BID which supported the event, also addressed the gathering, saying Armed Forces Day in the 80th anniversary of D-Day was a reminder not to take our personal freedoms and currently lifestyle for granted simply because an ‘invisible ring of steel’ kept everyone safe.

“The incredible bravery and sacrifice of our men and women… gave us the liberty we perhaps take for granted today,” said Mr Olley.

“We also honour the veterans on active duty, personnel from across the Commonwealth, and we also remember those who have served with distinction since D-Day in may areas of conflict, often at a great cost.

“Let us remember, let us celebrate, these brave men and women.”

Among the stalls dotted about Central Square were representatives from the British Forces Resettlement Fund, the Royal British Legion and the Armed Forces’ charity, SSAFA.

The Birmingham Air Raids Remembrance Association (BARRA) displayed various medals, protective headwear, air raid guides and maps of bombings across the city as well as a name-by-name, twin-volume list of more than 2,200 civilians who died during the Second World War, including the date of the ‘place of death / or finding of the body’ and where they are each buried.

Armed Forces Day 2024 also included vintage vocal harmony trio the Boogaloo Babes performing a range of songs, including Vera Lynn’s timeless ‘We’ll Meet Again’.

Copies of Birmingham City Council’s Armed Forces Covenant Guide were also available.

On a warm, but not overbearingly hot day, members of the MPTC took advantage of the Simon And Sons’ van to enjoy some ‘whippy’ ice cream cones before Westside BID treated them to lunch at sports bar BOX.