The Territorial
This piece of silver has rather a unique history. In 1968 when the then Lt Col W E McConnell TD commanded the 6th (Territorial) Bn The Queen’s Regiment it was decided that a silver sale from surplus silver be held.
The 6th (Territorial) Battalion resulted from the amalgamation on 31st March 1967 of the 3rd and 4th Bns the Queen’s Royal Surrey Regiment (TA). Only a few years previously these Battalions had themselves resulted respectively from the 5th and 6th Battalions The Queen’s Royal Regiment and 565 LAA Regt RA (part of which had been formed from the 4th Bn the Queen’s Royal Regiment) and the 6th Bn East Surrey Regt (TA) and the 23rd London Regt (TA).
The sale resulted in a surplus of money in the silver fund, and so Charles C Stadden (himself an ex-Territorial) was commissioned to sculpt the figure of a soldier in battledress equipped with 37 Pattern webbing and a self loading rifle which would typify “The Territorial”.
The figure was made to match another figure, the Cochrane Trophy of the same height.
The statuette was made by Mappin and Webb and it was presented at the Warrant Officers’ and Sergeants’ Dinner on 31st May 1968 at The Toby Jug, Tolworth. |