Bill Gardener

Passed away on 10th September 2023.

Bill will be known to many of you through his lengthy association with the Fusiliers both in an active role, (as a younger man), and more latterly through his roles in the Fusilier Association (several Branches) and the Federation of London Old Comrades Associations for which Bill used to assist in arranging the annual parade and lunch at Armoury House (HAC). Though this event no longer takes place, if you ever attended it would probably have been after receiving the invitation and information diligently prepared and sent out by Bill on an annual basis.  It was at one of those parades that he was presented with his Fusilier Regimental Medal of Merit.

Bill was active with several organising committees and regularly attended gatherings of the National Malaya & Borneo Veterans Association, The British Korean Veterans Association, plus attendance at the Lord Mayor’s Parade and remembrance service events at Holborn.

Bill was in the the Regular Army (Royal Signals) in the 1950s seeing active service both in Korea and Malaya. He left the Regular Army in the late 1950s and joined the Territorials soon after. Bill joined C (City of London) Company at Balham, just a stone’s throw from where he grew up in Tooting. It was there that he attained the rank of WO2 as Company Sergeant Major.

Bill died peacefully on the 10th September at St Clare Hospice, Harlow, close to where he’d lived for over 60 years.  He had been unwell for some time with kidney failure.

A memorial service was held on the 5th October at the Royal Fusilier Chapel, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Holborn Viaduct, where there was a good turnout of friends and comrades who came to pay their respects and to say goodbye.  There were family eulogies from his two sons and one from Father Nick Mottershead.

Bill is survived by his wife Chris who regularly attended Regimental and social gatherings with Bill and his two sons Phil and Steve. If you would like to make any donation in his memory Bill asked for these to go to either the British Legion or St Clare Hospice.

Bill will be very much missed by us all.

Alec Ferguson

Kenny Hammersley

Ken passed away on 14th June 2023.

A Korean veteran, he also served in Egypt and Sudan, 1952-55.

From a Regiment which was full of East London characters Ken stood out.  He always knew who was doing what in the Battalion. Some said he knew the regimental plans before the CO. I first met Ken when we were called up to the Tower for National service.  Our paths went together on to Hong Kong then to Korea, Egypt and the Sudan. I was lucky enough to be selected to box for the Dorset Regiment whose guests we were in HK, and Ken was our most ardent follower and this continued until the Regiment won the First Infantry Division boxing championships in Egypt of which he was as proud as we who boxed were. I got to know Ken’s biggest asset when he occupied the next firing step to me on the Hook.

He was a very positive thinker with a great sense of humour and just the type to keep spirits up in times of adversity.  An example of this was his adjustment to civilian life. He got a job as a labourer to a flat roof layer for whom he worked for enough time to learn the business. He then set up his own business ending up with two or three teams working for him.

We picked up contact again after the Army when he phoned me and asked why I did not come to the Regimental Association meetings.  I did, but that is another story.  Ken became very poorly for the last years of his life but when I asked how he was he replied “I’ve got a dangerously inflated aorta, my kidneys  are failing and I have water on the lungs but apart from that I’m fighting fit”.  We used to visit Ken and his lovely wife Pam at Wickford on the way back from the Cockle sheds at Leigh.  Cockles for Ken and shrimps for Pam.  We will not see his like again.

Mike Mogridge