Simon Diggins OBE
Simon's Frontline Walk for ABF The Soldiers' Charity
Fundraising for Army Benevolent Fund
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I am representing my regiment, The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, on the Ancestry.co.uk Frontline Walk for ABF The Soldiers' Charity. The Fusiliers raised 198 Battalions in WW 1 but on this occasion, I wish to particularly commemorate the 22,000 Royal Fusiliers who died in the First World War, marked by the impressive statue in High Holborn that many of you will have passed many times on the way to work..
As an exemplar of that sacrifice, I will be visiting the memorial at Thiepval, to 2Lt Basil Umney of the 4th Bn, The Royal Fusiliers: an only child, he was killed aged 19, during the fighting on the Somme in July 1916. We know little about his service but the sad ordinariness of his death is precisely what we should remember.
We will walk more than 75 miles of the Frontline, seeing the trenches that remain and covering some of the main battlefields of the First World War.
I am doing this walk to support ABF, The Soldiers' Charity, the Army's National Charity, an organisation that provides vital support for soldiers, former soldiers and their families in times of need.
Last year, The Soldiers' Charity supported over 80 specialist charities and helped 6,000 individuals.
Your donation and sponsorship will help the Soldiers' Charity to do what it does best: being there for soldiers, for life.
About me:
Col (Ret'd) Simon Diggins OBE M Phil BA(Hons) psc psc(j) (Late RRF)
Col Diggins was commissioned into the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers (RRF) in 1978 and enjoyed a full career with them, including tours in NI, Cyprus, Germany and Canada. He also served two years with the Sultan of Oman’s Army in 1990-91, coinciding with the 1st Gulf War where he was the Omani LO to the USMC. Staff appointments have included DCOS 24 Airmobile Bde, SO1 G3 Ops in HQ ARRC and tours as DS in the Army Staff College, JSCSC and the Ghanaian Staff College. During the latter tour, whilst running a project in Sierra Leone he was seconded to JFHQ during the May 2000 crisis in that country (Op PALLISER) and was subsequently awarded an OBE. More recently, he was the MA to the UN SRSG in Iraq (2004-5), DA Kabul (2008-10) and prior to his last appointment, was the Deputy Planner to the US Task Force in the Horn of Africa (Dep CJ5 CJTF HOA). In his final appointment, he was responsible for setting Training Policy and Standards for all deployed personnel and formations, establishing a joint training programme for the UK’s High Readiness Formations out to 2022 and acting as a point of focus for Joint Force simulation and synthetic environment issues. Col Diggins has a BA (Hons) from Durham and an M Phil from Cambridge. He has two sons, and two daughters; the younger daughter being born on 4 Aug, the 100th Anniversary of the start of the First World War.
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