I am writing to thank you all for supporting my nomination to Chair the Royal Signals Association. The Central Committee, which sat on 5th September 2025, confirmed that support and I therefore took over from Brigadier David Hargreaves, who had very generously taken the Chair in the interim, on Monday 8th September 2025. I consider it a huge privilege and honour to have been given this opportunity.
Of course, I wish I was stepping into the post under happier circumstances. David McDowall (who was my OC in Northern Ireland in the 1980s) was a truly unique individual who served our Corps for over 50 years, and who was respected and admired in equal measure by all, irrespective of rank. His tenure as Chair was cut short far too soon but his legacy will endure. I will do my very best to fill his shoes and continue the work he began to allow our Association to best meet the challenges of today and tomorrow.
You are all only too aware of those challenges. Veteran numbers are reducing across the United Kingdom and that is placing pressure on our Branch structure. The need to actively engage our veteran community to attract new members will continue to be our Main Effort in the years to come if we are to protect or even grow the current footprint. I am sure that you are all doing what you can to attract and retain new members at a local level and I will do what I can to support those efforts.
I plan to get out to see as many of you as I can in the next few months and to discuss ways that I and the Headquarters team can assist you. As I am sure you are already aware, we are looking to develop regionally focussed events wherever we can to take the pressure off branches and to attract new members but we do need ‘boots on the ground’ to help us deliver those events. I am keen to open the dialogue with you on this and to develop other ideas you may have. As ever, the sharing of best practice will be the key to success.
Please do get in touch if you have events of any kind planned in the coming months that you would be happy for me to attend. I look forward to meeting as many of you as I can and to continue to enable our Association to deliver support and good comradeship to all our Signallers.
Certa Cito
Jake
