- The family fun day and Christmas Truce Football matches from July 2014 provided many surprises especially our very own mascot William.
Kathy Noble from Ipswich kindly repsonded to a request from Donna, a wife of a member of the branch for her to knitt a teddy bear. The intention of William is to create awareness of the branch but more importantly the Royal British Legion poppy appeal.
There was one question though, what would be his name and how would we name him. So the quest began! The idea was we took 3 names off the war memorial in the village so the audience at the end of the afternoon would vote with a cheer for each name read out by Paul Tinkler, the MC. The loudest cheer was William (after William Hayward).
William enlisted into the Suffolk Regiment. He served from 15th August 1915 and died at home on 25th July 1920 aged 37. He is buried in the Haughley Churchyard and remembered on the war memorial.
To find out more about William and his Haughley Pals click here.
Branch members or members of the public take William on adventures, recently he's been to a wedding. Shortly he's going to Greece, Scotland and Bulgaria! Not to mention the local events such as the Poppy launch in Suffolk! Where will he appear next?
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