The Orihuela Costa Branch of the Royal British Legion celebrated the 90th birthday of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday with a dinner, followed by entertainment from TAABS and The Crazy Ladies, at the Olympia Restaurant in Mil Palmeras.

Coincidentally the birthday fell on a monthly meeting night, the timing for which had to be brought forward to cram in the additional activities.

The dinner was attended by 50 branch members and guests including two members of the Royal Hospital Chelsea, Wayne Campbell and Skippy Teasdale, who both came over from London especially for the event.

Both TAABS and The Crazy Ladies were once again outstanding as they entertained the gathering with a selection of their finest for almost 2 hours. But what the members hadn’t provided for  came after the two groups had finished their sets, the surprise arrival of Charles and Camilla, aka Malcolm Rusbridge and Peter Breen,  who joined in the branch celebrations which culminated in the cutting and devouring  of the very resplendent birthday cake, provided by Margaret Marsh, at the end of a most enjoyable evening.

There then followed the draw of the raffle which raised €103.00 towards this year’s Poppy Appeal.

Just 48 hours later the branch were out on the road as they celebrated St Georges Day on Saturday afternoon at the Emerald isle, La Florida, where a recruiting stand and book stall was manned by RBL members.

The venue was absolutely packed as once again live music was provided throughout the afternoon by entertainers aplenty, Dan Davy, Nick Gold and many more, who all gave their valuable time absolutely free. But it was young singing sensation Rebecca Holt who stole the show, where, for the best part of an hour, she wowed the sizeable audience with her performance of many popular wartime classics.

The Annual St George's Day event, which raised over 1130 euro, was organised by Branch Vice Chairman Eddie Coleman, in support of the RBL Poppy Appeal and the Paul Cunningham Nurses.