The East London Branch of the Royal Signals Association is laying up its current Standard and having a new Standard dedicated in a service at St Mary’s Church in Overton Road, Wanstead on Wednesday 8th April at 11am. The Mayor’s of Redbridge, Havering and Waltham Forest have all accepted invitations to be present for this auspicious occasion along with Deputy Lieutenants and other dignitaries and Standard Bearers from other local organisations.

The service will be followed by buffet lunch at Wanstead Golf Club also in Overton Road.

The Royal Signals Association (RSA) was formed in 1920 at the birth of the Royal Corps of Signals from the Royal Engineers.

The objects of The Association are: To provide comfort and relief either generally or individually to past and present signallers and their dependants who are in conditions of need, hardship or distress. To foster comradeship and morale within the Corps family, serving and retired The East London Branch of the Royal Signals Association was originally formed in 1925 and met in Stratford, although the original meeting in December 1925 is recorded, not much is known of the period after that until the branch reformed after the World War2 in Wanstead, meeting at the TA Centre in Selsdon Road, Wanstead before moving in the 1990’s to the Gordon Road TA Centre in Ilford, where it still meets at the renamed Army Reserve Centre. This year is the 90th anniversary of the forming of the branch and it makes the branch the second oldest RSA branch. The branch area serves the East London Area and South East Essex with members coming from all of these areas.

Based on information supplied by Alan Turner.