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Old 2nd Oct 2011, 05:57
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Old-Duffer
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Northamptonshire
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Queens Regulations used to have a table of what you were entitled to at your funeral and depending on your rank. Nowadays, it's more of an arrangement made with the deceased's family as to what they would like and what can be provided and within the bounds of good taste and possibility.

We have all seen the way in which service personnel are repatriated from overseas but in a sense, that's the tip of the iceberg.

Every deceased person's family is assigned a 'Visiting Officer' - it used to be called the 'Effects Officer'. This person provides the liaison between the service and the family and is there to help with all the many issues which arise.

In June I attended the memorial service for a retired officer, who was then an RAF Reserve officer. He had been cremated earlier that day and at the end of the service, the air experience flight/UAS did a flypast over the church. As it was a beautiful early summer day, it was a fitting end to a wonderful service, which had been arranged by the family and the officer's work colleagues. I hope they pack the church out when it's my turn: but I doubt it, as this guy was a character who lived live to the full.

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