Page 31 - Flaming Cauldron – Issue 61

ACC ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER

A belated invitation acceptance!

By Philippe Rossiter

The garrison church of St Michael & St George is
a well-known landmark in the heart of Aldershot
Garrison. With its foundation stone having been
laid by Queen Victoria in 1892, it has a long and
proud history of serving the pastoral needs of
countless thousands of troops, both British and
Commonwealth, who have found themselves based
in Aldershot. Originally dedicated to St George,
the church adopted its second name, St Michael,
in 1973 when its use was passed to the Roman
Catholic community in the Garrison. It is the
Cathedral Church of the Roman Catholic Bishop
to the Forces.
The church has long been the spiritual home
of the Royal Army Service Corps (RASC) and
the Royal Corps of Transport (RCT), housing
the books of remembrance of both corps, as well
as their memorial chapel. Until the mid-1970s, it
was also the Corps church for the Army Catering
Corps (ACC), which at that point transferred its
allegiance to the Royal Garrison Church of All
Saints. In the early 1950s, however, the ACC had
Steve Yafai, Pat Watmore,
erected a memorial plinth within St Michael & is undertaken with the RASC and RCT Books of
General Kerr and Philippe
St George to house its Book of Remembrance Remembrance.
Rossiter
commemorating the Corps’ fallen of the Second To accommodate the requirements of the
World War. Although the ACC no longer regarded Roman Catholic liturgy, the layout of the sanctu-
the newly-named church of St Michael and St ary area of the church was amended in the 1970s
George as its corps church, it proved impractical to incorporate a new altar to enable the priest to
to move the memorial plinth. For this reason, it celebrate Mass facing the congregation. At this
remains in situ along with a Book of Remembrance, time, both the RCT and the ACC were invited
a page of which is turned during the celebration of to support the installation of their respective
Mass each Sunday. A similar act of remembrance corps badges within the sanctuary floor to mark
their long-standing relationship with the church
ACC Alter at St Michael & through the RASC. Whilst the former accepted
St George church
the invitation, for reasons which are unclear the
ACC appears to have declined! A recent major
refurbishment of the Cathedral Church, especially
of the sanctuary area, provided an ideal opportunity
for the ‘absence’ of the ACC to be corrected.
In December 2022, during a short, but mean-
ingful, service conducted by the Dean of the
Cathedral, Father Nick Gosnell (himself a retired
Army padre), the newly-installed ACC badge was
unveiled formally by retired ACC Warrant Officer
Class 1, Pat Watmore, a regular member of the
Cathedral’s congregation. In attendance were a
number of retired ACC members as well as Major
General Seumas Kerr CBE, Chairman of the RLC
Heritage Committee, and Lieutenant Colonel
Steve Yafai, RLC Regimental Secretary. The small
ceremony therefore marked a somewhat long-over-
due acceptance of the initial invitation to install the
ACC badge within the Cathedral sanctuary! This
was made possible by the generous support of the
Royal Logistic Corps Association.
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