HEROES’ WELCOME

The community offering new lives for veterans

On 8 June, 1982 Steve Hammond, a soldier with the 1st Battalion Welsh Fusiliers, was playing cards with a group of men below decks on the support ship RFA Sir Galahad, moored in Bluff Cove in the Falklands, when the bombs struck.

Forty-eight soldiers and crew were killed. Among them was Steve’s friend Paul Green, with whom he had signed up for the Army on the same day five years earlier.

‘Why he got killed and I survived I’ll never know to this day,’ Hammond says.

He was seriously injured and underwent operations on his back and to rebuild his legs. He still has shrapnel in them, a souvenir of the war. In 1989 he left the Army ‘with a wife, two children and a suitcase’.

He returned to his home town in Shropshire and found a job, but was made redundant and subsequently lost his house. ‘Everything just hit on top of me. In the forces you had your food, accommodation, everything was done for you. And trying to fend for yourself, trying to get your mortgage sorted… I was in a bad way.’

It was shortly after he had tried to take his own life that he was contacted by Royal British Legion Industries (RBLI), a charity that supports veterans throughout their lives. ‘I still don’t know how they heard about me,’ he says.

In 1997 Hammond and his family arrived at the RBLI veterans’ village in Aylesford, Kent, for an assessment and was offered a home and a job. Over the next 24 years he worked in the metal shop in the village, where he still lives.

More than 300 veterans and their families live in the village, the largest of its kind in Britain. It offers a range of provisions, from emergency accommodation to family housing, from assisted living to dementia and end-of-life care, with a core mission to provide help, support and training for those who wish to build a second life outside the military.

The RBLI has its roots in Preston Hall, a 19th-century manor house in Aylesford, which after the First World War was used as a hospital and convalescent home for servicemen. In the aftermath of war, landscape architect Thomas Mawson brought together a group of beneficiaries to found the charity that would become the RBLI, and in 1920 the charity took over Preston Hall. As the numbers of residents grew so the community took the name the British Legion Village.

Rather than being separate from the surrounding community, the village is very much part of it, its various buildings integrated with private housing – Preston Hall is now luxury apartments. The programme at Aylesford is based on a unique welfare model, called STEPIN, (Support, Training, Evaluation, Personal, Independent and Next Steps), which provides every resident with a personally tailored plan to help them overcome significant challenges and provide a pathway to a stable and independent life.

Two years ago Hammond was due for retirement, but was told there was another job for him to do – as the RBLI ambassador. Today, he talks to various groups about the work of the organisation and takes part in fundraising activities. ‘What they’ve done for me, they helped me back on my feet and gave me my life back, so it’s payback time.’

We are talking in Britain’s Bravest Manufacturing Company, the Aylesford village factory, which specialises in providing employment and training to injured military veterans and people with disabilities, and which forms a key part in RBLI’S work to support those military veterans who face significant barriers to independence, including homelessness, drug and alcohol dependency, mental-health problems and financial difficulty.

Recent census data shows that almost two million people across England and Wales are veterans of the armed forces. For the vast majority, the transition to civilian life is trouble free. But for others, leaving behind the structured life of the services and coping in the outside world can present myriad difficulties.

The village’s Mountbatten Pavilion provides accommodation for new arrivals who will be suffering a multitude of often acute problems.

Some have PTSD, some have problems with alcohol and drugs. Some will have been living on the streets or in hostels. Over the past year the organisation has seen a 45 per cent increase in demand from homeless veterans, largely as a consequence of the Covid pandemic.

‘The main driver has been relationship

‘The minute you put a roof over someone’s head they heave a sigh of relief. That’s what we provide’

breakdowns, often caused by financial stress or people losing their jobs,’ says Emma Nugent, assistant director of strategic development. ‘And as we head into the cost of living crisis it’s quite likely we’re going to see that continue.’

In 2020 armed forces suicides hit their highest level for 15 years, with 21 service personnel and around 80 veterans taking their own lives. ‘Before the pandemic, most people were referred here by social workers or the military sector network of outreach workers,’ Nugent

‘The course is about them. It’s about accepting that military life is gone, so what now for your future?’

says. ‘Whereas what happened in the pandemic was that it was families – daughters, wives, partners, saying, “I really think he’s going to do it.”’

The highest demand from arriving veterans has been to do with mental health, whether that be PTSD, autism or a combination of neurological difficulties, says Lisa Farmer, the chief executive of RBLI. ‘With PTSD, we’re finding people are coming to us now who served in the Falklands.’ Thirty Falklands veterans live in the village. ‘It was the 40th anniversary of the war this year and that brought out a lot of anxiety for our veterans. And we expect to see further problems from the Afghan conflict down the line,’ Farmer adds.

The RBLI works with a number of specialist mental-health charities such as PTSD Resolution and Change, Grow, Live, which among other things specialises in drug and alcohol problems.

Mountbatten Pavilion accommodates up to 28 veterans at a time, but the aim is to move residents into other accommodation within two years. ‘The minute you put a roof over someone’s head they heave a sigh of relief,’ Farmer says. ‘And that’s what we provide in the first instance. But if you live more than two years in Mountbatten, that in itself can become a bit too much like an institution – and our whole ethos is not to become another institution.

‘Mountbatten is a place for someone to regroup, re-centre, understand who they are and what they ultimately want to move on to, and we’ve put the programmes in place for them to do that. And if that person is still not ready to do that we’re not doing our job right.’

One such programme is Lifeworks, which, over the course of a year offers advice, guidance and skills to veterans who are furthest away from being ready for the civilian job market. The programme has an 83 per cent success rate in getting veterans into work, volunteering or training.

‘Many of the skills that somebody might have learned in the Army, but who has been out of work for a long time, could be very attractive to employers,’ says Farmer. ‘So one aim is to tease out those skills that could be transferable to the workplace. Or it could be helping someone to prepare for an entire change of life.

‘What the course is about is them, and bringing out what their passion is and helping them fulfil that. It’s about accepting that military life is gone, so what now for your future?’

Britain’s Bravest Manufacturing Company employs some 70 people, most of whom are military veterans, people who have a disability, or both. A further 60 are employed in the charity’s smaller facilities at Leatherhead, Surrey, and in Scotland.

The state-of-the-art factory manufactures tens of thousands of signs each year for road and rail, the NHS and local authorities, as well as wooden pallets and bins used across a range of industries, and a number of products under the ‘Tommy’ brand.

The thoroughness that underpins the whole organisation extends to here, where people who are suffering PTSD are assigned to the quieter sign-making area, rather than palletmaking, where the sound of nails being driven in by electric hammers rattles like gunfire.

Tirtha Thapa is one of six former soldiers who served with the Brigade of Gurkhas who work in the factory. Following in his father’s footsteps, Thapa joined the British Army in 2005, and in his seven-year service undertook two tours of Afghanistan. On his second, in 2010, clearing improvised explosive devices from an alley he was caught in the blast and severely injured, losing his left leg above the knee.

Following rehabilitation at the Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre at Headley Court in Surrey, he returned to his regiment before leaving the service. ‘It was very difficult to adapt,’ he says. In 2012 the RBLI gave him what he calls his second chance. He has since established himself as leader of the signage team in the factory and has been able to move with his wife and two children to a new home outside the village in nearby Maidstone. He has also learned to play golf, competing in a tournament in Florida. ‘Being here,’ he says, ‘is like a family.’

The eldest resident in the village is 97-yearold Violet Clark, who lives in Appleton Lodge, the village’s purpose-built, state-of-the-art care facility. Violet was 17 and working in a bakery in Holt in Norfolk when she enlisted in the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS), ‘the women’s military’. ‘My boss wasn’t very pleased,’ she says. ‘He offered me another pound a week, but once I’d put my name down that was it. I just saw it as something that had to be done.’

In 1943 she was posted to Merstham, in Surrey, at a holding point for armoured cars and Sten-gun carriers being readied for D-day. ‘We were living in Nissen huts. There were 48 of us in this one hut. We were so close, it was head to middle, head to middle. The funny thing was there’d been 20 Canadian soldiers in

the hut before us and they’d moved them out because it was too small!’ She laughs.

Women were not allowed to carry arms, but nonetheless were expected to take guard duty. ‘They gave us each a piece of wood and said if you see anyone wandering around who’s not British, you say, “Halt, who goes there?” It’s always amused me – what’s a 17-year-old going to do with a piece of wood?’

After the war, Clark joined a different sort of service – The Salvation Army – becoming an officer, and remains a Salvationist to this day. She never married, but was once engaged. ‘We split up by mutual agreement.’ Years later, she heard he’d died. ‘He was in Patmos.’ She pauses. ‘What he was doing there, I don’t know.’

Clark was the first person to move into Appleton Lodge in 2019, when it was opened by Queen Elizabeth, who herself had served in the ATS during the war. They had met once before, during the war. ‘We talked about being in the military and the sacrifices we had to make.’

The day before my visit, the Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie had visited the village and spent time with Clark. ‘And it was so strange to hear them say, “My grandma told me that,’’ when everyone talks about the Queen in a reverent tone,’ she laughs.

Appleton Lodge is one of three assistedliving and care facilities for veterans in the village. Next door another facility, Bradbury House, offers a high-dependency nursing unit for 26 people, including end-of-life care and a specialist dementia suite for a further 25 people.

Andy Williams, the assistant director of care, who manages both facilities, says the model is for residents to regard them as ‘an extension of their home’. ‘It’s really important for families to be able to come in and visit whenever they want to, or for residents to go out whenever they like – it’s proven that it helps people’s health and well-being.

‘In some places, the care model is still “It’s six o’clock now; it’s time for bed” – because that’s how it was always done. That’s not how it’s done here. You decide when to go to bed and when to wake up. We’re trying to break down those barriers of “what is care”. Yes, we’re here to care and support everybody, but to support them in how they want to live their lives, and not how we feel in care it should be lived.’

The demand for places at the RBLI village is growing. The next challenge, says Farmer, is trying to fulfil it. In 2018 the RBLI launched Centenary Village, a £22 million development, which will comprise more family housing, disability-adapted apartments and assisted-living accommodation. The Village is now in the last stages of its fundraising drive, aiming to raise £1 million to complete the development.

The RBLI is completely separate from the Royal British Legion, receives no money from the Poppy Appeal and has to generate its own income from donations, commercial activities and sponsorships. England football captain Harry Kane is one notable supporter – he sponsors the team shirts for Leyton Orient, where he once played on loan. For the last two seasons the shirts have carried the RBLI ‘Tommy Club’ logo.

‘People come in here and they say it’s like a hotel,’ says Nugent as we walked into the foyer of one of the new residential blocks, Greenwich House, all blonde wood and pastel colours, which will provide apartments for older veterans, along with an IT learning suite, a community centre and a gym.

We had come to talk with John Ahben, the RBLI’S head gardener, who was working in the grounds of the Centenary Village. A shy, softly spoken man, John was born in Fiji, where he originally trained as a pilot, but in 2002, following a coup, he came to Britain to enlist in the King’s Own Royal Border Regiment. (There are some 1,500 Fijians presently serving in the UK armed forces. ‘Look at the Army rugby team,’ John says with a smile.)

He went on to serve in the Army for 12 years. Based in Cyprus, he was involved in an accident when a vehicle he was travelling in lost control. ‘When they found me I was unconscious,’ he says. ‘I regained consciousness, but when I tried to walk I collapsed; that’s what I was told.’

He had suffered serious head injuries which would leave him with permanent memory loss and cognitive difficulties. He was able to remain in the Army, serving in Northern Ireland as a quartermaster, before his injuries forced him to leave. ‘I liked military life – everything about it; the training, then going on a tour… If it wasn’t for my injury I’d have stayed in.’

He returned to Newcastle, living in supported accommodation and volunteering in a garden centre, before applying through his old regiment for a job as an apprentice groundsman at the RBLI village. Arriving five years ago, he went on to study horticulture, gaining his qualification and later rising to his present position. ‘It was difficult but I got through it,’ he smiles.

‘It’s a nice community here. Everyone’s always helping each other. I’m really happy where I am and what I’m doing.’

When he arrived, John lived in a one-bed flat in the village, but with the support and rehabilitation he received, he has since been able to move off site with his partner and their four-year-old daughter into social housing.

‘I’m slow in how I process things, and I forget most things. My partner is always ticking my head off for forgetting stuff.’ He laughs. ‘My routine is work, home, and on Mondays and Fridays I take my daughter to school and pick her up.’

The RBLI and its village, he says, gave him a new life. ‘I feel blessed, put it that way.’ Royal British Legion Industries (RBLI) is one of four charities supported by this year’s Telegraph Christmas Charity Appeal, along with Age UK, Macmillan Cancer Support and Action for Children. To make a donation, please visit telegraph. co.uk/2022appeal or call 0151-284 1927.

‘We’re here to care and support everybody, but to support them in how they want to live their lives’