The Baton

29/05/2026

I first visited the Jersey War Tunnels in 1962 as an 11 year old with my parents and revisited many times since then. I really love Jersey and its incredible history and delighted to return recently for some R&R. As usual I visited them again and honoured to meet Manager and veteran Mike Billings.

Mike and I shared feelings about veterans and serving issues and found a great deal of common ground, I explained the Baton's cause during our chat and how much it means to me and many others.

The tunnels and displays are very thought provoking on many levels, the effect of the German invasion on the Islanders and the incredible pressures they were under, the slave labour that built the tunnels under awful and inhuman conditions, the social pressure between the islanders and much more.

Jersey is a beautiful island with many happy memories for me and so much to discover and enjoy for anyone who has never been Jersey Evening Post Jersey Huge thanks to daughter Paula for taking this and many other memories.

Today, we were honoured to welcome Mr Alan Rowe MBE to the Tunnels as he carried The Baton in support of an important cause that continues to make a meaningful difference to veterans, serving personnel, and their families.

The visit held particular significance for our Guest Services Manager, Michael Billings, who served in both Iraq and Afghanistan and is no stranger to the handle on the end of a baton. Seeing it carried today not in conflict, but as a symbol of resilience, remembrance, support, and hope made this moment especially powerful.

The Baton has travelled to some truly remarkable and symbolic locations, from the North Pole to the South Pole, as well as communities, memorials, and places connected to service and sacrifice. Its journey represents unity, remembrance, and the shared connection between those who have served, those still serving, and the wider public, a message that strongly resonates with us here at the Tunnels.

Standing together outside the Tunnels was a reminder that strength is often found not only in service, but in unity, understanding, and looking after one another.

Our sincere thanks to Alan for visiting and for continuing to champion such an important cause.

Learn more about The Baton’s Message: www.thebaton.co.uk/what-is-the-baton/the-message/

Find out more about The Baton: www.thebaton.co.uk/

19/05/2026

Wonderful support from the ladies at Hays Travel Honiton... These terrific ladies have put heart and soul into raising some funds for us by holding a week long raffle and not forgetting naming the bright blue Elephant in their window - the names down already have to be seen to be believed😀

So much time has been put to getting the incredible amount of prizes, many from local businesses highlighting what a wonderful community spirit Honiton, the Home of The Baton, has.

Please support their wonderful effort if you have time, they are a credit to their company and there are some serious prizes to be won! 😊

18/05/2026

A necessary change to The Baton...we have decided to de register as a national charity, this will not diminish our cause of promoting the reality of life in the British Armed Forces including their families.....Our remaining funds will be transferred to SSAFA Devon by the beginning of June

Our main purpose of people being able to carry the Baton with its "Message of Conscience" will still continue, any funds raised in our name will go to SSAFA who we have worked closely with almost 14 years by funding grants through its dedicated Caseworkers.

To mark this change many of us met at the Tower of London where Trustee Baz Gray now a Yeoman Warder, hosted us and gave us a fabulous tour that included the ancient Ceremony of the Keys and what a night it was!

So onwards and upwards as always, the Baton Family move on! my grateful thanks to all who have supported Pauline and I especially our trustees.

Wishing all the very best of good health and happiness!😊

22/04/2026

We spent three days in Cornwall recently walking the Camel Trail and came across the incredible Atlantic Coast Express run by veteran Aidan, he makes fabulous crepes and other foods and various drinks... Aidan is a fabulous guy and has a young helper making superb crepes, so good I just had to have two! washed down with a couple of decent wets😊...Please check Aidan and his unique business out between Padstow and Wadebridge, we're looking forward to returning soon as Aidan took phots of Pauline and I but didn't get a phot with him.

20/04/2026

The Baton and its Message of Conscience being carried around the country https://www.thebaton.co.uk/what-is-the-baton/the-message/

The first stop on Tigger's journey is now complete.

Stopping at Lincoln, the baton has now been symbolically handed off to Phil Sandford, one of Tigger's former colleagues in the military.

Taking the baton between the locations is to spread awareness of The Baton, and fundraising for the Y Services charity.

Please see all links below:
https://linktr.ee/LandRoverExperienceWestCountry

17/04/2026

Today, one of our Product Experts, Tigger Howarth will be starting an epic 2,582 mile road-trip around the country to raise funds for the Y Service Memorial Garden at the National Memorial Arboretum in Burton upon Trent.

Tigger will be travelling to Lincoln, Portsmouth, Camarthen, Gloucester, Leeds, York, Loughborough and finally ending up at the NMA over the next 4 months. All monies raised will go towards the upkeep of the 'Y' Services Memorial Garden.

He is also taking a 'Baton' with him. This is to highlight the charity that provides help for Service personnel within Devon and further afield.

Thank you to Alan Rowe MBE from The Baton

Please see all links below:

https://linktr.ee/LandRoverExperienceWestCountry

15/04/2026

SSAFA, the Armed Forces charity Lipstick, Compassion and Humanity

"It was shortly after the British Red Cross arrived, though it may have no connection, that a very large quantity of lipstick arrived. This was not at all what we men wanted, we were screaming for hundreds and thousands of other things and I don't know who asked for lipstick. I wish so much that I could discover who did it, it was the action of genius, sheer unadulterated brilliance. I believe nothing did more for those internees than the lipstick. Women lay in bed with no sheets and no nightie but with scarlet red lips, you saw them wandering about with nothing but a blanket over their shoulders, but with scarlet red lips. I saw a woman dead on the post mortem table and clutched in her hand was a piece of lipstick. At last, someone had done something to make them individuals again, they were someone, no longer merely the number tattooed on the arm. At last, they could take an interest in their appearance. That lipstick started to give them back their humanity."
- Lieutenant Colonel Mervin Willett Gonin DSO, commanding officer of the Royal Army Medical Corps at Bergen-Belsen

80 years ago on 15 April 1945, the N**i concentration camp Bergen-Belsen was liberated by the British 11th Armoured Division. The soldiers discovered approximately 60,000 prisoners inside, most of them half-starved and seriously ill, and another 13,000 corpses lying around the camp unburied.

The photo shows a sign erected by British Forces at the entrance to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in May 1945. The remains of the camp itself were about to be burnt to the ground by the British occupation forces. A similar sign in German was also erected.