May 2021

For updates on the RBL and the  COVID-19 pandemic please visit out dedicated page.  

A big thank you goes all Branches who have donated pictures from their Branch history. This month the Website header is  a compilation from of some of the photos we have received to help us celebrate the RBL becoming 100.

Our Founding History 

On Sunday 15 May 1921, a wet and dreary day, a small number of ex-Servicemen walked to the Cenotaph war memorial in London’s Whitehall. As Big Ben struck nine, four men representing societies that for three years had been rivals laid a wreath at the base of the memorial. On that wreath were the badges of the four organisations that would officially amalgamate to form the British Legion.

This moment was the starting gun for the Royal British Legion we know today. By Christmas of 1921 the ranks of our organisation had swelled to include 2,500 branches across the country, as well as overseas. These were the groups around which the armed forces community rallied after the First World War. They made change happen, fundraised during the Poppy Appeal, provided welfare locally and became the foundations for what has become the UK’s largest Armed Forces charity. 

15th May 2021

Centenary Wreath Laying. One hundred years later we are proud to still have 2,500 branches, some with a history reaching back to 1921 and others established in the last decade. To mark the moment of our founding, we are recreating the activity of that day and our National President and serving personnel will lay a wreath at the Cenotaph at 0900 hours on Saturday 15th May, under the rule of six. That moment at the Cenotaph 100 years ago sparked the beginning of something much bigger.  To see some photos of Branches in Northumberland laying their Wreaths please go to RBL 100 15th May 2021

1st May 2021

Open University (OU) Disabled Veterans’ Scholarship Fund

Applications have just opened for the 2021 Open University (OU) Disabled Veterans’ Scholarship Fund.  This generous fund will provide scholarships for up to 50 disabled veterans to build on their unique military skills and experiences by studying at undergraduate or postgraduate level for free.

The OU has awarded 160 such scholarships so far, helping individuals from a variety of service backgrounds and diagnosed with a range of physical disabilities and complex mental health conditions.

Each scholarship is tailored to fully support all disabled veterans, injured during or due to their service, as they transition to civilian life, providing a free OU education and wraparound disability and careers service support.

The OU are very keen to ensure they reach as many people as possible who are eligible to apply. The application deadline is midnight on 9th July 2021.

More information is available here: http://www.open.ac.uk/courses/choose/veterans