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The following article is also published in the RMA Membership email in November 2024 and the January/February edition of the Globe and Laurel.

The Royal Marines Association Golf Society (RMA GS) – 10th Anniversary

The RMA GS recently held a dinner to celebrate its tenth anniversary which seems an ideal time to explain what we are, who we are, what we do, why we do it and what we would like to do in the future. 

We are an RMA Sports Branch. RMA Sports branches (previously called virtual branches) are relatively new and enjoy the same status as RMA geographical branches. So, belonging to the RMA GS is no different to belonging to RMA Exmouth (many of us belong to both).  

Who are we

We have over sixty active members and regularly attract thirty of them to our events. Our membership is constantly growing and in the past few years it has increased apace. Members range in age from a ‘sprightly’ eighty-three to thirty, and, although predominantly male, we also have female members. Typically, members are former RM, but our membership also includes serving members, ‘Perce’ and ‘CivPop’. A case in point is Ian, our current fixtures representative, and the bloke who does most of the work, is CivPop. His strong link to the Corps is his son who is currently serving at Poole. To further illustrate our inclusivity, we even have a former RAF bloke on the books! Our obvious ‘common denominator’ is our association with the Corps.

What we do

We hold around twelve golf events during the ‘summer’ months, at venues in and around Devon, and our home club is Tiverton. Our ‘opener’ weekend is held in March and includes our AGM and our ‘closer’ weekend, in October, now includes the Corps Dinner. This year we have played more games and attended more events than any previous year. In June, and under the leadership of our treasurer, Paul Denning, and with the help and support of the club staff, we organise and run the Westcountry 100 RM Charity Golf Day at the Exeter Golf and Country Club. Diary note - next year’s event is on 5th June at the same venue and entry forms will be available early in the new year on our website. Additional to TRMC, we also support other charities thanks to the support of our members, and the work of our small committee, who ‘beaver’ quietly away behind the scenes.  

Why we do it 

The obvious answer as to why we are members of the RMA GS is that we like playing golf – but there’s more to it than that. As with any RMA Branch, most of our members are part of the brotherhood, moulded by the Corps to look after each other and those around us; once a marine, always a marine. As much as we enjoy the golf, membership also keeps us in regular touch with each other and ‘plugged’ into the contemporary Bootneck scene. We also spread the word about how TRMC supports the Corps family and this year we raised nearly twelve-thousand pounds in donations - the majority of which generated by the WC100 event (see above). Most importantly, there is also a strong social element involved in being a member of the RMA GS and our recent dinner serves (sorry – bad pun) as an example.

The Dinner

Our inaugural dinner was held at Ashbury Manor (near Okehampton) in October to celebrate the 360th Corps Birthday and our tenth anniversary. It was a mix of the formal and informal; we observed the usual formalities of toasts, citations and speeches while dressed informally in our RMA GS golf shirts (one member wore his with a Corps bow tie!) and serving ourselves from the hotplate – just like in the main galley. The snipers among you will have spotted the “citations” plural above and this is correct, we now have our own citation which is available here. Photos from the evening are also available here. Some are a little blurry, perhaps we should have kept the photographer away from the port! 

Our GoH and TRMC Patron

TRMC Patron, and Constable of the Tower of London, General Gordon Messenger, joined us for a round and was generous enough to be our Guest of Honor for the dinner. During his speech, after reassuring us that the Crown Jewels were safe, he emphasised how important the RMA/TRMC is in providing support to the Corps family. He also made it clear that the RMA/TRMC does its business extremely well and is well set-up for the future.

The future

The RMA GS is a vibrant and growing ‘new’ Sports Branch which will continue to support the RMA/TRMC and provide support to our members. We are growing our membership and would also like to grow geographically. There are several potential members unable to attend our events because of the distance involved. We know there are many former RM living in/around Scotland and RMA GS (Scotland) remains an aspiration. The infrastructure is in place and our committee stands ready to support any volunteers from the ‘north’ who would like to step forward to get the ball rolling.

We welcome new members and if you would like to join us it’s very easy – just use this link, or visit our website. Have no concerns about your golfing ability, you will understand why at your first event!