Following on from their morning visit to GMFRS Bolton Central and GMFRS Bolton North Fire Stations this morning, members of the Fire Brigade Society went on to Rochdale this afternoon for a commemorative function to celebrate their 50th Anniversary Year.
We were very pleased to accept a kind invitation from Steven Dodge, Assistant General Secretary of the Fire Brigade Society to send a team representative to this afternoons special function, as thanks for displaying all our vehicles this morning for the FBS visit to GMFRS Bolton Central Fire Station.
Team call Out list member Dave Cook had the pleasure of attending to represent the team, and took along our BM2 Land Rover Mountain Rescue Ambulance Vehicle.
There follows an account of this special function by Dave Cook;
“The theme of the event was “Celebrating Founders Day” – the Fire Brigade Society was formed in Manchester by the late Bob Bonner in 1963 and since then the society has grown to become a respected international organisation with members all over the world – though by far the greatest number live the United Kingdom.”
“Guest speakers included Ralph Horton -The Fire Brigade Society, Steve McGuirk – Chief Fire Officer Of Greater Manchester Fire And Rescue Service (GMFRS), George Almond – High Sheriff Of Greater Manchester and former Chief Fire Officer of GMFRS, Robert Bonner – Curator of Rochdale Fire Museum and son of the founder Bob Bonner, Alan House – Fire Heritage Network UK, Kelvin Green – The Fire Fighters Charity, and Stan and Lynn Bairsto – National Association Of Retired Firefighters.”
“After the presentations and unveiling of a commemorative plaque, it was time to cut the Society’s 50th Birthday Cake. The first idea was to cut the cake using a traditional axe and saw from a vintage fire engine, then a second idea of using state of the art hydraulic cutting equipment was investigated, but in the end the cake was sent to the Fire Station Kitchen!”
“Following this the Society were to be found photographing the many exhibits in the museum – including the “stars of the show” these being a 1940 Dennis “Big Six” Pump Escape, a 1957 Dennis Metz F21 Turntable Ladder and of course our 2011 Bolton Mountain Rescue Team Land Rover Ambulance BM2″
“The Fire Brigade Society then held an impromptu collection for the Bolton MRT which raised the very kind sum of £33.45. The whole team membership would like to extend its sincere thanks for this thoughtful donation.”
