AN ASSOCIATION for men who served in the Suez Canal zone has had its new standard blessed in church.

The Oxfordshire branch of the Canal Zoners’ Association saved for more than seven months to raise the £550 needed to buy the standard, its first.

But before they could use it, the standard needed to be blessed, which the Rt Rev Bill Down duly did at Mary Magdalene Church, Woodstock, on Sunday.

Branch chairman Don Deaney, 76, who was in Egypt with the catering corps attached to the Royal Artillery, said: “We are really pleased with the new standard — it was about time we had our own. The service was excellent and there were more than 100 people there.

We raised most of the money ourselves, but some did come from local businesses and we are grateful to them for their help.”

The Canal Zoners’ Association was formed for, and helps reunite, those men who served in the Suez Canal Zone of Egypt and surrounding areas during the 1940s and 1950s.

The Oxfordshire branch meets in Woodstock every two months and is open to servicemen with a Suez link.