Army Veteran thanks SSAFA for 'civvy street' support

30 September 2022

It is safe to say that Cameroon has a varied and interesting history.

The west-central African nation became a German colony in 1884 known as Kamerun. After The Great War, it was divided between France and the United Kingdom as League of Nations mandates.

In 1960, the French-administered part of Cameroon became independent and was named the République du Cameroun. The southern part of British Cameroons federated with it in 1961 to form the Federal Republic of Cameroon. The federation was abandoned in 1972. Its name changed again in 1972 to become the United Republic of Cameroon, and back to the Republic of Cameroon in 1984. And, of course, the République du Cameroun.

As such, it retains two official languages – French and English – but among its 27 million inhabitants, around 250 languages are spoken.

But why is SSAFA, the Armed Forces charity interested in Cameroon, a Commonwealth nation and a member of La Francophonie, bordering the Gulf of Guinea?

It comes down to one man, a veteran of the British Army called Eric Davinci, who hails from Cameroon.

Eric has a history as eclectic as that of his birthplace. Born in Mbouda, some 160 miles north of the capital, Douala, he came to the UK as a student in 2009.

He takes up the story, saying: “At university, I had friends full of energy and always wanting to try out new things. One of them first joined the military and wouldn’t stop asking me to join as well and telling me how good it was being in the military. I then decided to give it a go and see if the military was for me as well.”

It clearly was.

Eric joined the British Army in 2012 with the 1st Battalion and 2nd Battalion The Yorkshire Regiment. Posted first to Germany, it later moved to the warmer climes of Cyprus for few years.

“I went on numerous exercises with the Yorkshire Regiment in the UK and abroad to places like Kenya, Jordan, Romania, and Afghanistan. I then transferred to the Corps of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers [REME] in 2016.

“My time with REME started with the 3rd Battalion in Germany and I ended my career in the British Army with the Royal Lancers in 2021, having gone on exercises and training to France, back to Romania, and also to Finland and Canada on winter repair operations.”

He left the Army to continue service – albeit in the National Health Service – in what he describes as another “battle”, saying: “The main reason for the switch was Covid-19. I was still in Canada on winter repair when the pandemic started and there was not a day at that time that I didn’t see an advert on TV with the government asking people to join the NHS in order to help the country cope with the impact of the pandemic.

“So, to me it was like a new battle had started and I couldn’t really do much to help fight the invisible enemy even though we were mobilised at regimental level to assist the local community deal with the pandemic, helping the most vulnerable with their shopping or taking part in various vaccination programmes that were set up by the government.

“I decided to join the NHS by going back to university to study nursing so that if anything of this magnitude was ever to happen again, then I’d be on that new frontline doing as much as I could to perhaps put a smile back on a family’s face.”

Eric came to know SSAFA through a local councillor and Armed Forces Champion where he lives in Keighley, West Yorkshire.

Cllr Joanne Dodds introduced Eric to Derek Cross, SSAFA West Yorks Branch Chair and a caseworker, and to caseworker Terry Sanson.

Eric says: “When I left the Army, I wasn’t exactly sure how much it was going to cost me or how long it was going to take me to settle back into Civvy Street.

“I found a council house, but it was in an alarming state and unsuitable to accommodate my family, but after Terry’s visit, we both agreed on all the things I needed in the house and in no time, he was back with the funding I needed for some of the basics in the house like flooring, beds, a cooker…

“SSAFA has really been a massive support – whether financial or emotional to me and my family – and from the moment I had a house to when I had the last piece of furniture in.

“But Terry and my local branch of SSAFA didn’t stop there; they also made sure that my kids had an amazing Christmas by giving me money to buy them Christmas presents.

Eric ends, saying: “To be honest, the SSAFA has been extremely helpful to me and my family as without them, it would have been really difficult to face last winter, and me and my family are grateful for SSAFA being there when we needed them the most.”

Additional thanks to the Royal British Legion who provided Eric's Christmas gift money.