LIPHOOK and Bramshott Royal British Legion members are aiming to raise £500 for a new standard so the one they have now, thought to be 80 years old, can be hung up.

It was first paraded in 1938 and is only 17 years younger then the Royal British Legion (RBL) itself – the service personnels’ aid charity was formed in 1921.

Liphook RBL branch chairman Lt Col Sean Brady is a serving Royal Marine, and in 2010 led Alpha Company, 40 Marine Commando, during Operation Herrick 12 in Sangin Province, Afghanistan.

Sangin was known as the ‘deadliest place in Afghanistan,’ and 40 Commando were the last British troops to serve there, before handing over to American marines. Now Lt Col Brady is based in Bristol during the week, coming home at weekends to Liphook, where he and his family have lived for three years.

The Royal Marine of 24 years said: “We plan to have the new standard dedicated at the Remembrance Sunday service in St Mary’s Church in Bramshott, which will be very poignant given it’s the 80th commemoration of the start of the Second World War.

“The current standard will then be hung in the church for posterity.”

And he firmly believes the RBL fulfills an important dual role.

He said: “After the First World War, villages and towns were offered the choice of either a memorial hall or a war memorial, most chose a war memorial.

“Every year in those villages and towns the RBL organises the Poppy Appeal, and is central to the Remembrance Sunday parades, helping the nation remember those who have fallen in past wars.

“But just as importantly it is there for servicemen who need help, whatever it is.”