Veterans Celebrate Burns Night at Royal Star & Garter

Burns Night has been marked in Royal Star & Garter’s Homes with bagpipers, haggis and whisky.

The traditional celebrations took place in the charity’s three Homes in Solihull, Surbiton and High Wycombe, on Wednesday, 25 January.

Royal Star & Garter provides loving, compassionate care to veterans and their partners living with disability or dementia.

All three Homes were decorated to mark the event with bunting and Saltire flags. Bagpipers were present, and in each Home the famous Robert Burns poem ‘Address to a Haggis’ was also read out to Royal Star & Garter residents before they tucked into their meals.

The Mayor and Mayoress of Kingston visited the Home in Surbiton, where they watched bagpiper Alistair Adams perform and pipe in the haggis. Cllr Yogan Yoganathan and his wife Saro, along with Deputy Mayor Cllr Nicola Nardelli then joined residents for lunch, which included neeps and tatties. Residents also ate the shortbread they had made during a cooking activity, and took part in a quiz on Scotland.

In Solihull, bagpiper Stuart McLoughlin played for residents and piped in the haggis before residents enjoyed their meal at tables dressed for the occasion with flags and tartan. The haggis was also washed down with a dram of whisky.

There were bagpipes and a traditional meal with whisky in High Wycombe. Residents also enjoyed a whisky-tasting session, and later made shortbread during a cookery activity.