2024-25 Report by Chairman of the Standing Committee on Welfare Programmes (SCOWP)
Brigadier John King MBE

In April 2024, SCOWP began the sixth year of our Commonwealth Veterans Programme (CVP), a programme to deliver food-purchase grants to our in-poverty beneficiaries.  For veterans and widows in the 23 countries within the programme (and the three outside) our grants, equivalent to the cost of two meals-a-day in their country, have meant a significant increase in their welfare, above RCEL’s previous aim of providing one meal-a-day. Our needy veterans and widows having suffered the restrictions of COVID now endure high cost of living, in particular, food.

During 2024, our two meals-a-day grants were made to 3,362 beneficiaries, a reduction of 3.2% from the 3,473 veterans and widows supported in 2023.

Aside from the majority funding of the CVP by Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) UK Aid, vital match-funding contributions are also made by the Army Benevolent Fund, The Royal British Legion, RAF Benevolent Fund and Greenwich Hospital (on behalf of the Royal Navy).

Significant contributions are also made by Queen Mary's Roehampton Trust and many private donors. Donors recognise the continuing need of the food grants and the good work of our in-country Member Organisations across the Commonwealth who deliver the grants to our beneficiaries.

RCEL global welfare distribution to Member Organisations exceeded £2.6M including those of other Founder Members and UK Service Charities.

This sum included 282 grant payments totalling £191,102 on behalf of some 24 UK-based service charities as Agency work. The number and total value of grants was a significant reduction from 2023 as Controller Welfare & Grants handed over administration of nearly all Royal Air Force and Royal Navy cases to the Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund and Royal Naval Benevolent Trust respectively. These charities and our Member Organisations now work directly to complete casework and grant payments to their beneficiaries.

Our disbursement of grants from Blind Veterans UK (BV UK) continues. Some 72 veterans were supported, a decline since 2023 but this £120 annual grant is highly valued by beneficiaries. BV UK’s continued support to blind and partially sighted Commonwealth veterans is gratefully acknowledged.

The Royal Canadian Legion is also gratefully acknowledged for its generosity in 2024, contributing over £108,000 of welfare, Remembrance supplies and IT services support to Member Organisations in the Caribbean, directly funding 34 beneficiaries in Antigua, The Bahamas and Trinidad & Tobago and part-funding 22 veterans and widows in Jamaica.

Other RCEL founder members, The Returned & Services League of Australia, The Royal New Zealand Returned and Services Association and the South African Legion also contributed significantly to beneficiary welfare and Agency work.

During July 2024, the Caribbean endured the destructive force of Hurricane BERYL, a Category 5 storm. The hurricane crashed into Jamaica, amongst widespread damage the winds tore-off part of the roof of Curphey Home, the veterans’ home outside Kingston, where we have two veteran residents.

Johanna Lewin, RCEL Caribbean Project Officer helped the home’s management submit an insurance claim. RCEL contributed £2,700 and the Royal Canadian Legion made grants to cover uninsured losses. The roof repairs have been made and damaged equipment replaced.
Curphey Home, Jamaica Hurricane BERYL ripped off roof panels
Dean Burditt with a Zimbabwean beneficiary
In 2024, office staff and trustees undertook several Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) visits to Member Organisations and to meet our increasingly aged and less mobile beneficiaries.

During April, Hon Treasurer, Jeremy Archer visited the divided island of Cyprus where RCEL has some 30 beneficiaries who served (or husband served) with the short-lived Cyprus Regiment. Cyprus is not part of the CVP, so the annual welfare grants are solely funded by RCEL. In the Republic of Cyprus (South) Jeremy was guided by our caseworker of 26 years, Ourania Pissarides to meet our last remaining veteran and several widows. In the north of Cyprus, Jeremy met with our long-standing representative Djemal Nedjat to meet our widow beneficiaries. Twenty years ago, Djemal was looking after 85 beneficiaries; now just 15 widows remain.

In early September, Secretary General David Thompson visited member organisations the African Pioneer Corps, Lesotho and founder member South African Legion. In the Kingdom of Lesotho, just 9 beneficiaries remain and in South Africa only 11 veterans and widows. Apart from visiting beneficiaries much of the visit focussed on reducing operational costs in line with the reduction in beneficiary numbers.

In October, Programme Manager Dean Burditt, undertook his first M&E visit, hosted by member organisations in Zambia and neighbouring Zimbabwe.

Sadly, during the year our last Zambia veteran passed away, but some 26 widows remain benefitting from RCEL two meals-a-day welfare grants. By contrast, in Zimbabwe, RCEL through member organisation ZANE, supports over 200 veterans and 200 widows. Dean travelled to Harare and Bulawayo and though he didn’t manage to meet all 400 of our beneficiaries, enjoyed meeting this diverse group witnessing first-hand the impact of our food-purchase grant and its value to our beneficiaries.

During November, Tim Burt, Controller Welfare & Grants visited Malawi, primarily a visit focussed on member organisation affairs overseeing the transition from the Kings African Veterans Trust based in Zomba to Veterans and Ex-Service Members of Malawi in the capital Lilongwe. The payment of grants to veterans and widows in Zomba being the highlight of the tour along with a farewell visit to Denis Lewis who for many years has provided essential in-country A summary of all visits can be read in later pages.

Throughout 2024, RCEL’s unique network of Member Organisations and in-country representatives once again delivered vital welfare grants to our beneficiaries, seen first-hand during M&E visits.

Grants funded by FCDO, service charities and individual donors, continue to enable over 3,300 needy pre-independence veterans and widows throughout the Commonwealth to buy one of life’s essentials – food.

This year, meetings with UK High Commissioners their FCDO and Defence Staff have been fundamental to our work, helping us navigate in-country issues that cannot be managed so effectively from London.

These visits prove the value of staff visiting our Member Organisations and face-to-face visits to our dwindling number of beneficiaries now almost all in their 80s and 90s and recognition of when they served the Crown.

Two veterans and thirteen widows in DASB Mymensingh, Bangladesh
RCEL - Royal Commonwealth Ex-Services League - Registered Charity No. 1174874 - Haig House, 199 Borough High Street, London SE1 1AA, United Kingdom - Telephone +44 (0)20 3207 2413

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