IN 2019, a small group from the veterans community in Somerset met at Vivary Park Golf Course clubhouse and floated the idea of a county-specific Armed Forces Day.
Thanks to the efforts of Phil Winks and the rest of the veterans who had the initial chat, and after three months of planning, the inaugural Somerset Armed Forces Day was devised and went ahead, with more than 3,000 visitors and was regarded as a success.
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2025 will be the fifth event in Somerset and is expected to be one of the largest on record, having been cancelled in 2020 and 2021 owing to the Covid pandemic. While Somerset Armed Forces Day takes place on July 5, the national Armed Forces Day event is scheduled for June 28.
The first nationwide Armed Forces Day – which was initially known as “Veterans Day” - was held more than twenty years ago back in 2006 and followed the American tradition.
It was held on the last Saturday in June of 2006 because that was the month back in 1857 that the first investiture of the Victoria Cross by Queen Victoria took place in Hyde Park, London.
Regional and local variations of the concept were subsequently devised across the country in a bid to localise the event and reflect the military contributions of towns and villages.
In 2009, the name was changed to Armed Forces Day to provide an opportunity for all to come together to show our support for the men and women who make up our Armed Forces community, reservists, soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines, those currently serving, our veterans, service families and our military services of the future in the form of cadets.
Following on from the success in 2019 of Taunton and Somerset Armed Forces Day, the group of Veterans decided to “think big” and hold a bigger and better event the following year.
In 2022, Somerset Armed Forces Day returned following the upheavals of the Covid pandemic with over 20,000 visitors that year. The number of visitors increased once again in 2023, with footfall of over 31,000 visitors who had the opportunity to visit a vast number of stalls, displays, and arena events.
Taunton is not the only town in Somerset to celebrated Armed Forces Day, as other events are planned for Bridgwater, Wellington and Weston-super-Mare.
You can find out more by visiting: armedforcesday.co.uk
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