Veterans chat at the Minden Day celebrations

PROUD veterans gathered to pay their respects to fallen comrades at the annual Minden Day parade.

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Medals shone brightly in the sun as former members of the Suffolk Regiment and the Royal Anglian Regiment (Suffolk) Association, gathered at Gibraltar Barracks in Bury St Edmunds, for the annual celebration.

Old friends shared memories and toasted the fallen at the moving ceremony to mark the anniversary of the Battle of Minden, yesterday.

Former journalist Martin Bell, who completed his National Service with the Suffolk Regiment, joined veterans for the festivities yesterday.

Ken Bunce, 78, who served in the Suffolk Regiment between 1951 and 1953, said the celebration was a chance to honour those in service.

“I look forward to coming here every year,” he said. “It is great to meet up with everyone again.

“We think of those we have lost; our mates. It is like a family, really.”

The Battle of Minden was fought in northern Germany between an Anglo-German alliance and the French on August 1, 1759, when members of the 12th Regiment of Foot, which went on to become the Suffolk Regiment in 1881, faced canon fire to defeat the French side.

Supporters yesterday wore red and yellow roses to commemorate the flowers the soldiers plucked from the hedges to decorate their hats after the battle. Prayers were said for the regiment at a service in the grounds of Gibraltar Barracks in yesterday, which was home to the Suffolk Regiment until 1959, when it was amalgamated with the East Anglian Regiment.

A two-minute silence was held in memory of fallen soldiers before veterans joined Chelsea pensioners for the annual parade.

As well as a celebration of the regiment’s history, the day was tinged with sadness as Stan Bullock, chairman of the Minden Committee, who has helped organise the event for the past 25 years, announced he was stepping down from the role.

Mr Bullock, 75, said ill health had forced him to give up the tradition which meant so much to him.

“It is hard to say goodbye,’’ he said. “I feel very sad but I thought it was about time to hand over to someone else.

“It has been a wonderful day; absolutely brilliant.

“Minden Day is a date everyone in the Suffolk Regiment will remember as long as they live.”