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Posted on the 12th November 2024 in PHTM News
RAMSGATE VETERAN REUNITED WITH LOST BERET THANKS TO TAXI CHARITY
A Ramsgate veteran who lost his treasured beret on Remembrance Sunday has been reunited with it thanks to the quick thinking of a black cab driver.
Rifleman Paul Jacobs, who served in the 2nd Battalion The Rifles, was devastated when he realised his beret was missing after attending the Cenotaph service in Westminster on Sunday.
Paul said: "It's important because it represents the regiment that I'm from and what I stand for and what I've done. But it's what's inside. There's a special silver coin inside behind the cap badge.
"It's two sided. On one side is a kneeling angel, and on the other side is hope. It was given to me by a dear who was my schoolteacher when I grew up in Ramsgate."
"I've had that coin with me wherever I've gone, whether it's climbing Everest or Kilimanjaro, walking across Norway, marathons - wherever it maybe, that coin is with me."
The coin first went with Paul on his tour of Afghanistan in 2009, where he was blinded by a bomb and severely injured while trying to save a colleague.
He was awarded the George Medal for his resilience and courage as a dedicated soldier who always acted to serve others.
Paul's plea for help on social media went viral and caught the attention of the The Taxi Charity for Military Veterans which mobilised a team of cabbies to scour the capital for the missing item.
Out of all the taxi drivers that could come to the rescue, it was cabbie Dave Hemstead, a former Rifleman himself.
The pair were reunited at an Armistice Day event in London, honouring their fallen friends and marked a successful operation over a cup of tea.
Dave said: "I was just out working yesterday taking veterans to and from different Remembrance events and the post come up, so I thought i'd best have a look because he's a Rifleman and I was a Rifleman as well.
"I knew what to look for, I knew it was a green beret so it was just trying to find one out amongst all the foliage on the side of the road and somebody kindly picked it up and put it on a fencepost.
Paul added: "I was quite distressed yesterday so thank goodness for the Taxi Charity for Miltary Veterans."
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