RAF Armoured Car Association - A Brief History.

The aim of the Association is to encourage prospective new members to contact us and hopefully join us at our reunions in Derby.

The Association was formed in April 1998. It was the result of what originally was a birthday get-together for Bernard Pettit of II Armoured Car Company (ACC) and Grace, the wife of Eric Armitage. Eric also served with II ACC. They were joined by “Mel” Melluish who served with 1 ACC. The word spread around and so the first Reunion was formed.

Mel Melluish became the organiser and driving force behind the new Association. The venue of the Best Western Midland Hotel, Derby was chosen as it was fairly central to all and adjacent to a mainline railway station. It was decided to hold the Reunions twice yearly in April and October. Mel searched high and low for new members; he took out adverts in magazines and on Teletext. One of the original members was Sqn Ldr Michael Casano MC, or Cass as he was known, who died very recently. Members came from all parts of the country and two came from France.

The meetings are very informal. We gather on a Friday evening and Saturday morning of the designated weekend and generally talk of old times or discuss interesting items brought in or articles found in old documents. Photographs are plentiful and the merits of equipment from one era of the Cars as opposed to those from another are argued. Saturday evening we dine in the main restaurant and spend the evening in the lounge bar. Sunday evening is the focal point of the weekend when we join together for the “Banquet” in one of the Hotels main function rooms. At this we generally enjoy an excellent meal, hold a raffle with some superb prizes, donated by members. We then have a photographic slide show relating to the ACCs. They are quite fascinating and are given by Dr Chris Morris of the RAF Habbaniya Association. All this in the comfortable and relaxing atmosphere of the Midland Hotel.

In December 2002, Mel Melluish died and John Rolph took over the organization of the Association. In October 2003 we dedicated two trees and plaques to the 1 and II ACCs at the National Memorial Arboretum (NMA) at Alrewas. Since that time we have welcomed new members from II Armoured Car Squadron.

In October 2006, we held a memorial service and dedicated a tree in the RAF Grove  at the NMA, to Sqn Ldr Casano who died in August 2006. We were honoured and delighted to welcome the CG of the RAF Regt, Air Cdre Peter Drissell, the RAF Regt Secretary, Wg Cdr Martin Hooker RAF (Retd), and Sqn Ldr David Tait, formerly OC II Sqn RAF Regt, to the service and to our meeting back at the Hotel.  

We welcome and actively seek new members
along with their wives or partners.

Anyone from the ACCs or the Armoured Car Sqns - or with a connection to them - who would be interested in joining us contact me, John Rolph, by email at . When I first went I was told “It will not be a wasted weekend”, it most certainly wasn’t.