Patriotic Portsmouth pub that suffered devastating fire receives prestigious veterans award

The Ship Anson in The Hard has been awarded a Falkland Scarf by Scarves for Falkland Veterans, after being voted the favourite pub for veterans.

The Scarves for Falkland Veterans Facebook group initiative was started by Rachel Simons, having lived with her family in the Falklands during the war. Now living in the UK, Rachel began creating handmade scarves for all South Atlantic Medal recipients, designed in the colours of the medal ribbon, to say a special "thank you" to those who recovered the islands.

Soon Rachel found herself with a large waiting list of Falklands veterans, leading her and a number of volunteers with their goal to knit or crochet over 29,000 scarves for all SAM holders. In 2019 the Scarves for Falkland Veterans became a Facebook community group, and it now boasts over 6,000 members.

Since then, the group has gifted over 8,300 scarves, with receivers making donations to the wool fund, along with many additional contributions, including £35,000, being distributed to worthy causes.

The group recently held a poll to determine the "Falklands Veterans favourite pub", of which the Ship Anson was declared the winner. The Greene King pub was awarded a certificate and a scarf (made by Rachel herself) in recognition of this honour.

This January, the group also achieved an incredible milestone, sending out wool to scarf creators which totalled 1,982 miles, approximately a quarter of the distance from the UK to the Falkland Islands.

Terry Rigg, general manager of the Ship Anson said: “It is a great honour of ours to support the Armed Forces Veterans and to be awarded the Falkland Scarf was a very proud day for us. 

“We really admire what Rachel and the group are doing to give a special thanks and we hope to continue offering a welcoming space for veterans to enjoy for years to come.”

Rachel Simons, Scarves for Falkland Veterans said: “This Falkland Islander is forever grateful for the peace and freedom that our Task Force of over 33,000 restored to our beautiful home.

“My way of saying thank you is to crochet scarves in the colours of the South Atlantic Medal ribbon and present them as gifts to our amazing veterans, making them feel warm inside and out.

“Following a poll on our Facebook site our veterans voted The Ship Anson their "Favourite Pub in the Whole World", as they are so well looked after by the staff, management and customers, and it was our great honour to present The Ship Anson with its very own Falklands Scarf."

The accolade comes a year after the pub suffered a massive fire after  a cigarette caught alight in January last year. The blaze caused significant damage to the pub’s beer garden and began to spread inside the main building when firefighters arrived. 

A major refurbishment was undertaken before punters returned to their beloved local watering hole a month later.