WARWICKSHIRE SCOOTER ALLIANCE Ride of Respect
After the confusion in 2017 with the loss of Drayton Manor as a central meeting point and whispers of the ride being cancelled, the future of the Scooters Ride of Respect was unclear. The Warwickshire Scooter Alliance took up the challenge to find a new central meeting point for all the clubs and alliances to meet up, and came up trumps with Whittington Barracks, the home of the Staffordshire Regiment Museum.
The Staffordshire Regiment Museum welcomed the scooterists with open arms… the Warwickshire Scooter Alliance, Midland Scooters, East Midlands Scooter Alliance, Leicester Alliance, Staffs Alliance, Worcester Alliance, as well as many individual clubs, including the Vespa Club of Britain and the Armed Forces Scooter Club, to name but a few. Free refreshments were available to the early arrivals.
Our limited time at the museum ended when the ride out began its journey. The roads around the barracks were very quickly flooded with scooters, as the convoy moved through the single lanes of the Staffordshire countryside and the villages of Whittington, Hademore then Fisherwick before arriving at our destination, the National Memorial Arboretum. The Arboretum occupies 150 acres and more than 350 memorials are located within the grounds, each with a story to be discovered. The memorials are diverse in nature, rich in symbolism and collectively represent a broad population of society from military associations to charitable organisations, emergency services, fraternity groups and individuals. New memorials are being added all the time.
It is a living tribute that will forever acknowledge the personal sacrifices made by the Armed Forces and civil services of this country. This NMA site is continually evolving with the trees and the memorials and is well worth a day trip, outside of our yearly visits.
At 1pm, all the scooter riders converged on the Armed Forces Memorial for a brief memorial service. Our service of memorial was followed by the reading of the exhortation: “They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning. We will remember them.”
We then had our bugler and the two minute silence, followed by the laying of wreaths from some of the various scooter clubs in attendance. It was a very special day, with everyone paying their respects in their own particular way, and £378.59 was donated to the NMA on the day, £300 to be donated to Galanos House, Royal British Legion Care Home. The Warwickshire Scooter Alliance will also be making a donation to the Staffordshire Regimental Museum, in recognition of their support and assistance for the event.
Finally a massive thank you to the hundreds of scooter riders from all over the Midlands, who turned up, paid their respects and supported this very special event. It is truly amazing when all scooter clubs and scooter associations can work together for a common cause.