The founder of the Lord Mayor’s Big Curry Lunch on supporting army veterans.
He never talked about it,’ Michael Hockney says of his father’s experience serving in the army during the Second World War, ‘but I do know that he saw some harrowing things towards the end when the Allies were breaking through and going into the prisoner-of-war camps.’
Instead, it was his time working as an adviser to the Ministry of Defence during the 1990s that first opened Mr Hockney’s eyes to the army and, in particular, the difficulties faced by some soldiers on their return to civilian life. Their plight prompted him to accept an invitation to join ABF The Soldiers’ Charity (originally the Army Benevolent Fund, founded in 1944) as a trustee. A few years later, he founded the annual Lord Mayor’s Big Curry Lunch, which, next month, will be filling Guildhall in London for the 10th time as it raises money for the charity.
Curries are a staple of army messes and part of the Big Curry Lunch’s appeal is the informal, democratic aspect. ‘everyone sits at long tables on benches,’ explains Mr Hockney, ‘and there’s no seating plan—you could find yourself sitting opposite the Secretary of State for Defence or the Bishop of London.’ So far, the event has generated £1.55 million and both the Lord Mayor and Mr Hockney would love to see this year’s lunch take that total to £2 million.
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