The King George V raises a huge amount of money for various charities each year. There are always three collecting boxes on the bar - one for the RNLI, another for Kent Air Ambulance and the other one for
Help for Heroes (Click to visit their page).
Our special charity for 2011 is the Esmond House Christmas party. Last Christmas residents from the sheltered care home in the village came to the pub for their Christmas party and as they left it was agreed that we would do the same this year - but we would pay for it this time.
So far £20 has been made available from the pub Christmas raffle, another £65 from the New Year's Day bacon sandwich fund and the charity tube on the bar will go towards the fund for the whole of this year. So, dig deep into your pockets so that charity can begin closer to home!
We also raise hundreds of pounds with our annual charity walk which takes place in July. Each walker chooses their own charity so the share out is big and varied. Please see a letter from the Royal Marine Charitable Trust Fund -
Click Here.
Cheese, port and pate parties have been held at the pub for different good causes. If you are interested in organising one, then talk to John or Diane.
We were also involved in raising cash for a memorial for William Hackett, the only tunneller to be awarded the VC during the First World War. His medal is at the nearby Royal Engineers Museum. To find out more, go to the following websites:
Visit his websites: RE Museum/Wiiliam Hackett
William Hackett
A new ale has been launched at The King George V to help raise money for a memorial to a First World War hero.
When a group of regulars decided to raise money for a memorial for Sapper William Hackett – the only tunneller to be awarded the Victoria Cross – a real ale named after him was an obvious next step.
So William Hackett Ale was born – a 3.6 per cent ABV ale from Wadworth’s Brewery in Devises.
It is one of four real ales in the pub and 10p from every pint is donated to the memorial fund.
Landlord John Brice said: ‘William Hackett was a real hero. His VC is at the Royal Engineers Museum just around the corner so we feel we have a strong connection with him.’
Hackett was one of 1,516 ‘moles’ who died during the conflict. Their job was twofold, to tunnel under ‘No Man’s Land’ to lay a mine charge beneath the German trenches, and also to protect their own line from being undermined by fighting a game of underground cat and mouse.
In June 1916, William Hackett and four other men were working 40 feet beneath ‘No Man’s Land’ near Givenchy in French Flanders when a nearby German explosion caused part of the gallery to collapse.
All five were trapped but a rescue party eventually reached them after frantically digging an escape hole through the earth and broken timbers.
William Hackett helped three men to safety but refused to leave before the last of his colleagues, who was badly injured, was removed. He famously said: “I am a Tunneller. I must look after the others first.”
Hackett and Collins waited for four days. Eventually, despite the best efforts of the rescuers, the tunnel and shaft both collapsed entombing the men in their cramped burrow. William Hackett could have escaped several times but chose to stay.
Hackett left a wife, Alice, and two children - a son and a daughter. On the 29th of November 1916 Alice received her husband’s posthumous VC from George V at Buckingham Palace.
In 1966 her daughter Mrs Mary Hopkins, donated her father’s medal to the Royal Engineers’ Museum where it is still on display today.
Author and filmmaker Peter Barton was particularly touched by the story when he researched his book ‘Beneath Flanders Fields – The Tunneller’s War 1914-1918’, and thought it was only right that a memorial be erected.
Peter Barton and a group of friends have achieved their £25,000 fund raising target and the memorial was unveiled in Givenchy in June 2010.
For more details go to:
www.tunnellersmemorial.com
