Politics Home Article | Charitable partnership enhances support to veterans

Veterans Aid (VA), the UK’s frontline charity for veterans in crisis, has become the latest charitable partner of the Honourable Artillery Company (HAC), the oldest regiment in the British Army.

VA has been operating since 1932 and enjoys an externally validated success rate of 90% in terms of transforming broken lives. For the next three years it will be the beneficiary of fundraising events and other support from the HAC in acknowledgement of the two organisations’ shared commitment to those who have served, and their families.

CEO of Veterans Aid Prof Hugh Milroy said, “We were delighted and honoured to have the value of our work acknowledged in this way by the HAC. VA deals with the consequences of crisis and poverty; issues that don’t sit comfortably with the public image of military heroism and glamour. In fact, we operate in the real world, practicing the real values of the military family where ‘man down’ is a call to immediate action. As an organisation that spends hardly anything on advertising or self-promotion, we are singularly mindful of how valuable support from organisations like the HAC can be in helping us reach donors and – more importantly – those who so desperately need our help.”

Marcus Simson, CE of the Honourable Artillery Company said, ‘’We are delighted to support Veterans Aid as our sponsored charity. We have a shared commitment to those who have served and value the vital and tailored services Veterans Aid provides. Many are not available elsewhere. They include mental health care, housing assistance, job training, and peer support. These programs restore dignity, stability, and purpose, helping veterans and their families thrive rather than merely survive. Too often they are the only thing that prevents tragedy. The HAC is clear that all of its support to Veterans Aid will go directly to helping those in need. For the HAC, contributing time or resources is a tangible way to express our gratitude, uphold our shared values and ensure that those who protected our freedoms are never left behind and remembered with respect – always, everywhere.’’

The two organisations also share a relationship with the church of St Botolph-without-Bishopsgate whose links with both are strong. St Botolph’s is home to the HAC’s Regimental Chapel, which commemorates members of the Company who died in conflicts. It also houses the engraving of Hogarth’s Good Samaritan gifted by Veterans Aid to the church, as a symbol of its own partnership with the church.