A thank you to the Taxi Charity from Royal Fusiliers veteran Jim Phillips

The professionalism, courtesy and friendliness of your drivers is something you should be very proud of, and they are a credit to your cause.

The backroom staff who organised the Ypres programme, ferry tickets, food, hotel, etc should be commended for their skills in getting everything together and in the right place at the right time. From experience, I know how much these trips take to organise and I thank them for the time and energy that they put in to achieve this.

I have been involved in quite a few military ceremonies in my time, but the Menin Gate ceremony is definitely up there as probably the most iconic of them all. From start to finish, it is probably the most emotional and humbling experience that you can attend.

To have my friends Tom and Paul involved in that ceremony is something that I would like to personally say thank you to yourself for giving them the honour to take part in. It was particularly meaningful for Tom who had planned a trip to the gate with his wife to see her relative whose name is on the gate as one of the missing. Unfortunately, Tom's wife passed away before the trip and so he had to cancel. So again, thank you for that.

I’ll just finish off by saying thank you to you, your staff and drivers for a fantastic few days and I want to wish you all the very best for the future. Thank you.

Kindest regards,

Jim Phillips

(Veteran who served with the Royal Fusiliers for 22 years)