AGA becomes the BGA

By John Faulder

Herr von Richthofen presented me with a copy of the book An Embassy in Belgrave Square when I took him to lunch at the Officers' Mess at Knightsbridge Barracks of the Household Cavalry, where the dining room is dominated by a huge portrait of Kaiser Wilhelm II, resplendent in his black plumed helmet and scarlet uniform as Colonel of the Royal Dragoons (The Royals, now part of the Blues and Royals). The Ambassador needed convincing that a portrait with such a subject could be in a place of honour.

The original portrait belonged to the The Royals, and when they merged with The Royal Horse Guards (The Blues) in the early sixties they wanted to bring it back from their mess in Wesendorf. The Queen, who was Colonel-in-Chief of both Regiments, intervened and ordered the original portrait to be kept in Germany, offering her own copy for the Mess in Knightsbridge instead.

Sir Frank Roberts completed a quarter of a century as President of the BGA before he died in 1998, a very powerful influence to the end, which was marked by a moving Memorial Service in English and German at St Stephen's, Westminster.

His successor as President, Sir Nigel Broomfield, had been Ambassador to

'both' Germanys and Military Government in Berlin, before becoming Ambassador to the reunitfied Germany. As Director of Ditchley Park, Chairman of the UK Konigswinter Steering Committee and President of the German-British Chamber of Industry and Commerce as well, Sir Nigel must be the doyen of British-German Affairs.

Professor Alan Watson succeeded Air Commodore 'Bob' Martin as Chairman in 1991 after a brief spell as Treasurer. The three things that will mark his term of office were the establishment of the annual Nutcracker Ball as the annual fund raising event - the acme of the British-German social calendar, the development of the Youthbridge exchange scheme with children from the Neue Länder, and the establishment of the Prince Friedrich of Prussia lecture as a serious annual landmark.

On his elevation to the Upper House, Lord Watson of Richmond, as he then became, took over the Presidency from Sir Nigel and entrusted the Chairmanship to Major-General Patrick Brooking, who had been the penultimate Commandant of the British Troops in Berlin, where he had also been instrumental in converting the British Officers' Club into the International Club. One innovation was then to have two Vice-Chairmen, one British and one German, and Douglas Paterson, formerly of PriceWaterhouseCoopers and Gerhard Storch, formerly of Hoechst, were appointed. In 1995 the name of the AGA was changed to the British-German Association (BGA) in order to cater for the other countries besides England in the United Kingdom.

An annual lecture concerning the eastward expansion of the EU was instituted in memory of Sir Frank Roberts and every two years a trail-blazing conference is organised by the Association. Having moved from Bloomsbury Square to Buckingham Palace Road to Conduit Street in Mayfair, the Association office was finally moved in 2001 to 34 Belgrave Square where it shares the old East German Embassy with the DAAD and the Anglo-German Foundation, a useful consolidation of those concerned with relations between the two countries and a very convenient and elegant venue for lectures and receptions.

The Sustaining Membership (Companies paying an enhanced subscription in support of the Association) doubled in 2002 and a radical overhaul of the Affiliate Membership, the nationwide network of organisations affiliated to the Association, is taking place in 2003, offering such members use of the Website opened late in the previous year. The British-German Officers Association entered into a very special association with the BGA in 2003 and plans are in hand for the Dresden Trust to do something similar in 2005. A Younger Members Group was formed in 2000 and has since grown and flourished. The BGA works closely with the Royal Institute for International Affairs (Chatham House), the Young Konigswinter Alumni Association, and the UK-EU Societies (13 friendship societies with fellow members of the European Union) for which it was one of the main organisers, under the Chairmanship of John Faulder, BGA Treasurer for 14 years, of a Reception at St James's Palace attended by The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary year of Her Coronation.

The BGA celebrated its fiftieth anniversary and launched its second half century with a magnificent dinner at The Hurlingham Club in the Autumn of 2001 in the presence of many friends and supporters over the years, including the German and Austrian Ambassadors.