7:30pm Wednesday 10th March 2010
By Stephen Bailey
THE Rifles will be granted the Freedom of Poole next Friday with an exchange of gifts at the Civic Centre.
The regiment has been on the frontline of action in Afghanistan and the council wants to honour the men’s “bravery and dedication.”
The mayor will present a freedom scroll and commemorative sword to Brigadier Richard Toomey and in return receive a silver bugle, the unit’s emblem.
The honour traditionally gives a regiment the right to march through a town with flags flying and bayonets fixed.
There will not be a full parade until 2011 at the earliest because the unit has too many commitments, including the six-month winter deployment of a battlegroup to Afghanistan.
Fourteen members of the regiment have been killed since the council decided to award the honour in mid-December.
The Rifles were formed from four county-style regiments in 2007 including the Devon and Dorsets.
Poole granted the Dorset Regiment the freedom of the borough in 1946 and in 1976 extended this to the Devon and Dorsets.
Cllr Charles Meachin, the mayor of Poole, said: “ I am delighted to be able to grant this much-deserved honour on behalf of the people of Poole in recognition of the men and women who serve this country with such bravery, commitment and dedication.”
Three Rifles soldiers from Dorset have been killed in Afghanistan. Captain Mark Hale, 42, from Winton in Bournemouth, and Rifleman Phil Allen, 20, of Verwood, died last year, On Friday Rifleman Jonny Allott, 19, of Kinson in Bournemouth, was killed by an explosion in Sangin and is due to be repatriated today.
The Rifles held a freedom parade through Shaftesbury last September, and will hold a freedom parade in Bournemouth on July 25 to coincide with the town’s 200th birthday celebrations.
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