Statement regarding the Royal British Legion and the LMS-Patriot Project

The following statement was read out at the LMS-Patriot Company AGM on 11th November

Our relationship with the Royal British Legion

In 2009, Richard Sant (Company Secretary) and Andrew Laws (Marketing and Publicity Director) had a meeting with the then Royal British Legion Director of Corporate Communications, Stuart Gendall.  He told them that the Legion could not support the Project financially, but endorsed our aims and said that we could use the Legion crest.

We took him at his word and promoted the Project accordingly, including the use of the crest.

We wrote to the Legion earlier this year in order to reaffirm our relationship with them in light of the potential for our involvement in their Armistice Centenary events next year.

In response, Terry Whittles, Head of the Legion’s Board of Trustees, wrote to say that they had been unaware of the decisions taken by Mr. Gendall that he was not authorised to make them without consulting his Board and had not made the Board aware of what he had done.  Mr. Whittles asked that we no longer claim the Legion’s endorsement and stop using the crest.

The Project Board were shocked and surprised by this reaction and suggested a meeting with Mr. Whittles at the Legion’s Head Office to explore ways of reaching a mutually acceptable solution.

The meeting took place last month.  Mr. Whittles made it clear that there was no possibility of our being permitted to use the endorsement and crest because doing so would, in the Legion’s view, imply that we had received financial support from the Legion.

In using the endorsement and crest since 2009, the Project Board has acted in good faith and has never suggested that we have had any financial support from the Legion.  We are extremely disappointed, but have no choice other than to comply with the Legion’s wishes.

We will produce a new crest which will be mounted above the nameplate and we will continue to foster good relationships with the Legion’s local branches in pursuit of our common aim: the promotion of Remembrance.