Madrid Branch Royal British Legion

01/08/2026

*Today is Minden Day*

Minden Day is a regimental anniversary celebrated on 1st August by certain units of the Army. It commemorates the participation of the forerunners of the regiments in the Battle of Minden during the Seven Years’ War on that date in 1759. In the battle, an Anglo‑German army under the overall command of Prussian Field Marshal Ferdinand of Brunswick defeated a French army. The Annus Mirabilis of 1759 was a string of notable British and allied victories over their French‑led opponents.

The celebration of the day involves the wearing of “Minden Roses” on the regimental head dress, and in the case of the infantry regiments, the decoration of the regimental colours with garlands of roses. This recalls that the regiments wore wild roses at the battle that they had plucked from the hedgerows as they advanced to engage the enemy.

Minden Day is celebrated by:

12 (Minden) Air Assault Battery, 12th Regiment Royal Artillery
32 (Minden 1759) Battery, 16th Regiment Royal Artillery
The Royal Scots Borderers, The Royal Regiment of Scotland, as successors to the King’s Own Scottish Borderers, successors to the 25th Regiment of Foot
1st Battalion, The Royal Anglian Regiment, as successors to the Suffolk Regiment, successors 12th Regiment of Foot
HQ Company, 3rd Battalion, The Royal Anglian Regiment (Army Reserve)
The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, as successors the Lancashire Fusiliers, successors to the 20th Regiment of Foot
The Royal Welsh, successors to the Royal Welch Fusiliers, successors to the 23rd Regiment of Foot
The Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment, as successors to the Royal Hampshire Regiment, successors to the 37th Regiment of Foot
3rd and 5th Battalions The Rifles, successors to The Light Infantry, successors to the 51st Regiment of Foot
The North Saskatchewan Regiment [Reserve Canadian Army] successors to the Saskatoon Light Infantry in honour of a regimental twinning with a British Army Regiment. The N.Sask.R. wears the white rose.

The colours of roses varies: red and yellow roses are worn by most of the units (including the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers and the Royal Anglians ‑ both of whom continue to mark Minden as one of their most important regimental days), the PWRR wear a single red rose, whilst a white rose is favoured by the Light Infantry.

17/07/2026

*Today marks the 109th anniversary of the establishment of the House of Windsor*

The House of Windsor is the reigning house of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms. The house’s name was inspired by the historic Windsor Castle estate. The house was founded on 17th July 1917, when King George Ⅴ changed the name of the royal house from the German Saxe‑Coburg and Gotha to the English Windsor due to anti‑German sentiment during the First World War. There have been five British monarchs of the House of Windsor: George Ⅴ, Edward Ⅷ, George Ⅵ, Elizabeth Ⅱ, and Charles Ⅲ.

The monarch is head of state of fifteen sovereign states. These are the United Kingdom, Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, The Bahamas, Belize, Canada, Grenada, Jamaica, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Solomon Islands, and Tuvalu. As well as these separate monarchies, there are also three Crown Dependencies, fourteen British Overseas Territories, two associated states of New Zealand, and one territory.

https://www.royal.uk/house-windsor

27/06/2026

27 June 2026, 5:00 pm to 9:00 pm
Plaza de la Constitución
Torrevieja
03181 Alicante

The Torrevieja Armed Forces Breakfast Club in Association with Torrevieja Branch of The Royal British Legion and Spain District North will be holding a Commemoration and Celebration of our Armed Forces and Veterans.

18/06/2026

Today is Waterloo Day

The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815, near Waterloo (then in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, now in Belgium), being the last engagement with Napoleon I. The French Imperial Army under the command of Napoleon I was defeated by two armies of the Seventh Coalition. One was a British-led force with units from the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Hanover, Brunswick, and Nassau, under the command of field marshal Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington. The other comprised three corps of the Prussian army under Field Marshal Blücher.

Waterloo was the decisive engagement of the Waterloo campaign and Napoleon's last. Napoleon abdicated four days later, and coalition forces entered Paris on 7 July. The defeat at Waterloo marked the end of Napoleon's Hundred Days return from exile. It precipitated Napoleon's second and definitive abdication as Emperor of the French, and ended the First French Empire. It set a historical milestone between serial European wars and decades of relative peace, often referred to as the Pax Britannica.

25/05/2026

22/02/2026

🎪 Organising a local Armed Forces Day event takes time and money. We can help with the costs.

The Ministry of Defence is offering grants of up to £10,000 to help communities host their events.

🗓️ The deadline to apply is 31 March 2026.

Start your application here 👇

https://www.armedforcesday.org.uk/get-involved/organise-your-own-event/apply-for-funding/

20/02/2026

We were back for a fun and enjoyable evening at Paddy’s Irish Tavern.
Our special thanks go to Nicolas, our fantastic Quiz Master, for volunteering and leading us through such an entertaining event.
Congratulations go to the winning team, BiM!
And a big thank you to everyone who participated and for their support for the RBL Madrid Branch. €60 were raised for branch funds!

12/02/2026

110th anniversary of the Wipers Times

The Wipers Times was a trench magazine that was published by British soldiers fighting in the Ypres Salient during the First World War. The paper consisted of poems, reflections, wry in‑jokes and lampoons of the military situation the Division was in. In general the paper maintained a humorously ironic style.
In early 1916, the 12th Battalion Sherwood Foresters stationed in the front line at Ypres in Belgium, came across an abandoned printing press. A sergeant who had been a printer in peacetime salvaged it and printed a sample page. The paper itself was named after the Tommy slang pronunciation of Ypres.

Under its initial title The Wipers Times or Salient News, the first issue was published on 12th February 1916, with a circulation of one hundred copies. It was followed by another 22 issues, mostly consisting of 12 pages each.

The names of the staff involved in the paper are mostly unrecorded. The editor was Captain (later Lieutenant‑Colonel) Frederick John Roberts MC, the sub‑editor was Lieutenant (later Lieutenant‑Colonel) John Hesketh (“Jack”) Pearson DSO MC. A notable contributor to the paper was the Gunner Gilbert Frankau. Also worthy of note are the engravings by E.J. Couzens; his portrait of a chinless platoon commander clutching his cane and wondering “Am I as offensive as I might be?” became the paper’s motif.