AN Army veteran of 39 years has spoken about the importance of Remembrance Sunday and the Poppy Appeal ahead of a period of reflection over remembrance weekend.

Andrew Gannon, 64, is chairman of the Billericay Royal British Legion, which organises the Remembrance parade and ensures veterans have a community to be involved with after the service, alongside frequent charity drives to fundraise for veterans.

Mr Gannon joined the army as a 16-year-old and served across many roles until November 2013. 

As a member of the Blackwatch, 3rd Batallion, Royal regiment of Scotland, Mr Gannon was involved in active service until March 1993.

“I served in the UK, Hong Kong, Germany, including Berlin, Belize, Canada for 6 weeks as well as doing 5 tours of Northern Island and when I was in Edinburgh, we took part helping out in the commonwealth games,” Mr Gannon said.

Mr Gannon transferred from the group to the Generals Corp, then serving with the Army Drugs team.

“When I left in November 2013, I did the Billericay Remembrance parade and four years ago I took over as chairman, I’ve been branch standard bearer for 7 years as well," Mr Gannon added.

Mr Gannon said: “We need to keep it in history and they need to know why we stand there with our medals on our bellies, we try to visit schools, some of the smaller branches have folded but we hope things work out and we need to start visiting youth organisations to get them to be a part of the branch.”

He added: “We are a small branch, we don’t have our own club and the younger people who want to join want a social life, we used to have a hall at the back of Waitrose, and we moved to the Scout hut until last year, where we moved to the Chantry centre.”

Every year, the group sadly tends to lose one member, hammering home the importance of ensuring that the stories and experiences of veterans are passed onto the next generation, Mr Gannon said, adding that youth outreach is essential to the continued survival of the Billericay RBL.