Howard Williams

Having joined as a boy soldier in 1964 and started men’s service in 1966 I served in Germany,Norway and the UK and enjoyed a full and active service in a largely peacetime army.

I was a member of the Army Youth Team in Kent, a Duke of Edinburgh scheme assessor, and a founder member of the League of Young Adventurers, a group still thriving today.

In 1975, having served 9 years as an adult soldier, I left the army to wear a uniform of a different colour and made an equally interesting career in the police force, a career which took me to retirement in 2002, and not being the sort of chap to take up television or gardening on a larger scale, I found plenty to be done as a County Case Worker for the Royal British Legion and of course the challenge of helping run a small branch here in Spondon, Derbyshire.

Retirement offered me the chance to put something back, Army and Police Service had given me some excellent opportunities and a desire to continue helping people who are less fortunate, Prior to retirement I had been a branch treasurer, (1983 – 2003) a Secretary since 2004, PAO since 1992 and a case worker since way back in 1980. Taking on the role of county case worker upon my retirement in 2003 meant I was able to be a founder member of “Prison inreach” which, given my previous employment as a police officer has often been both rewarding and at times amusing when I meet people for the “second time”.  We chat about it, we get it out of the way and we get the job done, I’m there to help, someone else has already done the judging!

Also in my list of “jobs” is a couple of years since 2008 with the Derby Youth Office, in any given week I work with people aged 16 and 86, people both sides of the law and people who sometimes seem on the face of it to be beyond help. One thing I have learned is that no-one is beyond help.

Being a member of the finest social and welfare organisation on earth has given me great pleasure, meeting people who have the common value of fellowship and fundraising, organising a Remembrance parade attended by a huge crowd in a small community and just keeping our little club going is reward enough for the effort I put in.  One of my proudest moments was receiving my gold badge in 2000, a badge which had been returned to the branch upon the demise of my old mate “Tom” Earith and presented to me so I’ll always have Tom with me.

Of course there are challenges, that’s what makes it interesting, the challenge of finding new ways to raise money to support the welfare work we do (look at our branch website www.spondon.org) the challenge of bringing new younger members into the Legion to keep it going for the next 90 years and the biggest challenge of all, dealing with the Pride that our clients hold dear.

The services do an excellent job in giving it’s troops pride, pride in their appearance, their achievements and pride in themselves. Often though this pride then prevents us getting welfare to those who need it the most, I would say my biggest regular challenge is letting people know what we can do for them and that there is no shame or embarrassment in letting us help.

My personal goal and aim and my tip for any other case worker would be,  to be fair and friendly and to treat everyone, whatever their circumstances as you would like to be treated yourself. Be Presentable and professional as you are the representative of this great organisation and remember the value of the Royal British Legion “Others, not Self”

I like to think the three words that sum me up would be “Caring, Always available”

Perhaps that explains my activities of 2010, 30 prison inreach cases, 93 welfare cases, 3 trips to take our clients to the excellent welfare break locations and 4 talks on the Poppy Appeal and Poppy support to local groups.

A living room full of tins personally delivered and collected, about 30 hours spent manning the dawn and dusk shifts collecting in our local supermarket, something I really enjoy as it gives me great opportunity to spread the word of our welfare work, and about a hundredweight of coins counted, bagged and banked.

Looking back to 2002, the time since my retirement has flown by, I have no idea how I ever managed to squeeze a full time job into the week. Being a policeman was an excellent career but it was what I did, not who I was. Being a proud and active member of this great community of fundraisers, welfare workers and friends is ME, it’s what I am.

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