Donations In September 2009, the Legion accepted a donation from Rachel Firth, a member of the
British National Party (BNP). She raised money by spending 24 hours in a cardboard box, giving half to the BNP and half to the Legion. Initially, the donation was rejected, but, after Firth gave an assurance that its giving would not be "exploited politically", it was accepted. In August 2010,
Tony Blair pledged the proceeds of his memoirs,
A Journey, to the Legion, "as a way of marking the enormous sacrifice [the armed forces] make for the security of our people and the world". This included a £4.6 million advance, making it the largest single donation in the charity's history.
Chris Simpkins, the Legion's Director General, said he was delighted with what he called "this very generous" offer and the Legion announced that it would be used to help fund its planned "Battle Back" challenge, a project to provide state-of-the-art rehabilitation services for troops returning from the frontline with serious injuries. Amongst the generally favourable reaction to the news, some
anti-war campaigners and families of soldiers killed during the wars
in Iraq and
in Afghanistan claimed the donation was "
blood money" and a
public relations stunt.
Subscriptions In 2015, the administration office announced that the practice of subscriptions being paid informally within clubs by cash would cease, and that in future all subscriptions would need to be paid either via
online payment,
direct debit, cheque or in cash at PayPoint. In
North Wales this prompted a number of associated clubs to leave the Legion, including
Colwyn Bay and
Conwy, with others voting on also doing so.
Royal British Legion Women's Section The Royal British Legion Women's Section (RBLWS) was founded in 1921 and operated independently for some 96 years, with its own branches, standards and standard bearers, county branches, income and expenditure, national central committee, and annual conference. In mid-December 2015, with minimal consultation with the RBLWS, the Royal British Legion wrote to all RBLWS branches announcing its decision to integrate the Women's Section into itself by October 2016, when the RBLWS would become a "district" of the RBL, no longer operating as a separate organisation. Its national standard would no longer appear at the
Cenotaph on
Remembrance Sunday and would be “laid up”, never to be used again. The RBLWS national officers had been told about this in advance, but they were also told to treat the information as confidential, so that they could not fore-warn their members. This speedily led to mass protests and branch closures. By September 2016, public perception of the RBL had fallen to its lowest level in four years. The integration of the RBLWS into the RBL was completed in November 2017. The RBLWS was still in existence in 2019, with a central committee of seven members and with its chairman having a seat on the RBL Board of Trustees. By then its substantial funds had been integrated into the accounts of the RBL.
2017 employment tribunal A former Royal British Legion case officer won a tribunal case in November 2017, exposing a culture of bullying and HR negligence that led to her wrongful dismissal. The employment tribunal heard that there was a culture of bullying in the HR function at the RBL HQ and the entire HR department had left the charity. == Bands ==