Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) military Services Club holds its 100th anniversary dinner
The Queen’s University Services Club held its 100th anniversary dinner at the University last night, (Friday) with a record attendance of members and non-members, in the presence of civic representatives and senior Service chiefs from Northern Ireland.
Because it was the 100th Anniversary, this year’s event was opened to non-military personnel and immediate family members, with an attendance of over 300 people.
At a reception in the Great Hall prior to the dinner, the Vice-Chancellor Sir Ian Greer presented a bronze sculpture to the Club as part of the University’s 180th celebrations.
The Club was formed in October 1918 shortly before the end of the First World War, but no dinners were held during the Second World War and the Covid pandemic, so last night’s event marked the actual Centenary of the Dinner.
The first Dinner was held in a Belfast restaurant on 11 November 1919.
Membership of the Club was originally confined to Queen’s graduates, undergraduates and staff who served in the First World War. This was later extended to those who served in the Second World War, and armed conflicts since then.
Membership was also opened to the Reserve Forces, the UDR, and the Home Service Battalions of the Royal Irish Regiment.
The Club has more than 375 members, but only two or so veterans of the Second World War.
The Club organized the funding and erection of the University War Memorial which was unveiled in 1924, and also compiled a Book of Remembrance containing the names of 254 members who died in the First World War, and the 155 who died in the Second World War.
The main Act of Remembrance took place at last night’s dinner, when the Book was carried into the dimly-lit Sir William Whitla Hall and a Toast was proposed in memory of Fallen Comrades.
The President of the Club Lieutenant Colonel Amanda Byers will lay a wreath at the University War Memorial tomorrow. (Sunday)
The main speaker at last night’s dinner retired Brigadier Mike Murdoch, who is currently Chief Executive, Reserve Forces and Cadets Association for Northern Ireland, paid tribute.
He said: “We remember those who have made the ultimate sacrifice and the many who have been wounded doing their duty. Most people in combat commit immensely brave acts on a daily basis just trying to keep themselves and their comrades alive.
“A very few are recognized for their bravery. My sense is that bravery is most often something that comes in the moment, at a time when there is no time to think about the consequences, but only time to act.
"I believe that most people who have committed extraordinarily brave acts have invariably been just ordinary people in the circumstances of the moment.”
The Brigadier paid tribute to the many who were awarded the VC, and other tributes ,for their bravery, and noted that “There are some unique individuals with almost unfathomable levels of courage and determination. Blair “Paddy” Mayne, the formidable son of Newtownards, was probably our greatest example of that type of character.”
He added “Sometimes history is changed by an ordinary soldier in a trench or by a doctor who refuses to leave a wounded comrade despite the danger, or by a sailor or aviator doing the most extraordinarily brave things when duty calls.
“On Sunday when you answer the call We Will Remember Them, consider if it is enough to just remember them.
"It is our duty to remember them, and in this time of yet again a fragile global security, to ask ourselves ‘Why did that happen and why did no-one stop it before it was too late?”