The Task
Major Stephen Cain, MBE, the honorary Vice Chairman of BABFA in the New York area, will commence a march on 3rd October from USMA West Point to Boston. The March will be conducted on subsequent weekends with three aims:

The Man
Stephen is a retired officer in the British Army having served in the Royal Fusiliers and the Parachute Brigade. He has lived in the US, with his American wife Donna, since the 1990s, he loves America and the UK (where his children and grandchildren live) and is fiercely proud of the special relationship between the two. He is in the process of applying for dual citizenship.

The March
The March begins on Friday 3rd October from USMA West Point and
arrives at Boston Common at noon upon saturday 8th November of that
Armistice Day weekend. The total distance is some 225 miles and traces
a path North to Boston as detailed below.

Follow Stephen's progress [with photos] week to week on this page.

Faugh a Ballagh
(Clear the way)

Royal Irish Reg't
currently deployed in Afghanistan

Kaphar hunnu bhanda marnu ramro (Better to die then live like a coward.)

Royal Gurkha Rifles, Recently returned from Afghanistan, and to whom Prince Harry was attached.

Weekend 10/12 October - COMPLETED
Ridgefield to Meriden, Connecticut, 54 miles.
From Ridgefield, bypassing Danbury to the North East, and via the Holbrook Farm on Rte 53 to Bethel and onwards to Newtown; purchased from the Pohtatuck Indians in 1705. A Tory stronghold in the Revolutionary war, this beautiful town is - amongst other things - the home of the inventor of Scrabble. From Newtown across Lake Zoar skirting Southbury, Waterbury, and Marion to Meriden, in New Haven County.

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The Parachute Regiment - the elite Airborne Infantry element of the British Army

Weekend 17/19 October - COMPLETED
Meriden, Connecticut to Eastford, Connecticut, 51 miles.
Depart from Meriden at 1000 hours to Highland and towards Lake Terramuggus in Marlborough via the outskirts of Middletown and Portland. Northeast thereafter to Andover (named for that beautiful Hampshire Town in the UK), and Coventry and skirting Route 44 to Eastford Connecticut; located in the "Last Green Valley" of the Quinebug-Shetucket Heritage Corridor of fertile and functioning farmlands which bracket the Connecticut and Massuchusetts borders.

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Nemo Me Impune Lacessit (Touch me not with impunity).

The Royal Regiment of Scotland, with seven Battalions, is the senior and only Scottish line Infantry regiment of the British Army

Weekend 24/26 October - COMPLETED
Eastford, Connecticut to Framingham, Massachusetts, 52 miles.
Passing through Woodstock ( formerly Wabaquasset) - which was the largest of the "praying" towns of NE connecticut in the 1600's - we move NE across the top of Douglas State Forest. This 6000 acre
Forest which borders both Connecticut and Rhode Island, boasts land and water excursion and recreational areas, and - unusually - a rare example of Atlantlc White Cedar swampland. The 25th of October brings
us to Framingham, Mass; with some 66,000 inhabitants the most populous town in New England and a town which consistently refuses to change its Charter to become a city.

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At this time of Remembrance, may we honour all fallen comrades united in the past and current campaigns. To our American and Commonwealth comrades from Australia, New Zealand and Canada; and to allies from Holland, Denmark and Poland. Above all, to all British soldiers and their families, past and present, who mark this time of reflection."

"Age shall not weary them. Nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning, We shall remember them."

The Royal Welsh (Y Cymry Brenhinol).

A 3 Battalion Regiment of the British Infantry. The regimental motto is Ich Dien (I serve)

Weekend 7/8 November - COMPLETED
Framingham, Massachusetts to Charles River Bridge; to Union Club, Boston, Massachusetts 24 miles
For those who wish to join, the Friday 7th November 16 mile route departs at 1000 hours from A: The British Beer Company, 120 Worcester Road, Framingham, MA 01702, to B: the Junction of Rt - 2 and Brookline Avenue, Boston, MA 02215. The final few miles shall re-commence from the above at 0930
hours Saturday 8th November, and proceed via Storrow Drive and Longfellow Bridge to Muster at 1100 hours upon Boston Common by the State House and the Union Club.

A bright and sunny noon on Saturday, 8th November, greeted the
marchers who completed the final miles by parading behind the skirl of
the pipes at the top of Boston Common opposite the State House. On
October 5th we had left USMA West Point in New York State and by
marching at weekends, had crossed Connecticut and entered
Massachusetts - a journey in excess of 225 miles.

We marched in Remembrance of "comrades past, and comrades lost" and
greatly supported by the American Legion, and by British and American
people, and pipers and fifers and by 'OxForce;' and by a myriad of
well-wishers and re-enactors too numerous to mention, we paid due
homage to the fallen and the survivors at this special time of
Remembrance.

Thank you all for your support of BABFA. The Sponsorship/Donation
appeal for the March remains open. Please click on the box at the head
of the page.