Royal Navy Veterans Credit: Josh Clark

The Pendleton Royal Navy Association and Pendlebury Social Club celebrated Trafalgar Day in Salford yesterday for the second year running due to popular demand.

Trafalgar Day commemorates the victory of Nelson’s heavily outnumbered Royal Navy against France and Spain in 1805.

This year round, Pendlebury Social club opened it even further afield to veterans of the Royal Navy, Merchant Navy, British Army and the Royal Air Force, as well as having the Deputy Ceremonial Mayor John Mullen and Mayoress of Salford attend.

They read out Nelson’s prayer and pay respects to the veterans and to remember the men who fought on Trafalgar Day over 200 years ago.

Mayor Mullen said: “It’s a tradition that celebrates our history and gives the opportunity for me personally to come out and meet veterans of the navy and as part of my role as ambassador for the city, to get out there and meet people and events such as this is an ideal occasion.”

Events such as this mean a lot to the old veterans as it gives them a reason to escape isolation and bond with people who have shared memories.

Royal Navy veteran Rick Clegg added: “It takes you back to your memories, no one talks about it but we all know what we’ve done and what we’ve been through. It all boils down to memories. You meet people from different ships who you may never have met before but we still have shared the same life experiences.”

Royal Navy Veterans Credit: Josh Clark

The event was also graced with the presence of a special guest from Broughton House, which is the home for veterans in Salford since 1916, bringing with them two veterans from World War Two, aged 92 and 94.

An abundant amount of different associations and age groups all coming together to remember their service.

Trafalgar Day was full of entertainment for the veterans to enjoy.

A live performer came to play their music to all the different guests throughout the afternoon, a raffle with exciting prizes followed by karaoke to round the day off.

All of this was also joined by a lot of rum, which the navy veterans took full advantage of.

The members of the Pendleton Royal Navy Association, the Landlord of the Pendlebury Social Club and the organizer for this event said that this year’s event was a lot easier to organize due to the huge success of last year’s celebration, despite the upgrade in scale.

As a veteran of the Royal Navy himself, Anthony has a lot of sentiment for the Royal Navy and has huge admiration for anyone who has served from all different generations, hence why he loves setting this event up every year.

“It’s all about patriotism. Veterans can span from people in their 90s to people in their 40s. We’ve all done basic training, we’ve all been at sea and we all share a brotherhood.”

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