SSAFA celebrates Sussex family of veterans for their military service

Armed Forces Day takes place today Saturday, June 25, and Armed Forces charity SSAFA is recognising its volunteers and staff, and their families, who have served for many generations.

One of those is Richard French, who lives in Littlehampton.

Richard, a SSAFA regional fundraising officer from Littlehampton, joined the Coldstream Guards aged 18.

FROM LEFT (now) Capt David Heath French RAMC (R) and Cpl Richard French Coldm Gds Gds Para Pl

His service – which included joining the Guards Parachute Battalion, two tours of Northern Ireland, as well as Iraq, three tours of Afghanistan, and deployment to Kenya on anti-poaching operations - was cut short in 2017 after a parachute accident in America.

Richard said: “I always wanted to be active in the military because of my parents’ military service. 

Col Michael French RAMC

“This is hardly surprising as my father joined the Army as a boy soldier aged 15 in 1966, leaving the Royal Army Medical Corps as a full colonel 38 years later.”

Lt Shirley French QARANC

Richard added that Shirley, his mother and ultimately a captain in the Queen Alexandra’s Royal Army Nursing Corps, even nursed Monty – Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery – in his final years.

His elder brother, David Heath French of the RAMC, is a captain and on a Full Time Regular Service appointment.