Tulip Talk with Jan Whitbourn

This week’s guest in the Tulip Radio studios was Spalding’s town centre manager, ex-Major, Dennis Hannant.

Before taking up the post in November, Dennis was a familiar face to many of us, entertaining the crowds at local community and charity events — often alongside Tulip Radio.

Dennis is a versatile tenor who sings songs from films, musical theatre, opera, the Rat Pack and much more, providing first-class professional entertainment at Tulipmania and Spalding’s Christmas Lights Switch-on.

This time, Dennis didn’t come to the studio to sing, he came to talk about his time in the Army and upcoming events in Spalding and south Lincolnshire.

Dennis served both in the regular Army and Territorial Army for over 43 years, most recently on full time regular reserve service with the Royal Logistic Corps, Territorial Army, based in Grantham.

Dennis talked about his experiences in “Feeding the Five Thousand” and about all the places he visited during his military career and how much he enjoyed this service and how it set him up for civilian life.

We talked about the transition, adjustment and experiences involved in returning to civilian life for ex-Armed Forces personnel and how the life is so different.

Dennis said that like him, the majority adjust with no problems, as the skill set you acquire is easily transferred to the civilian workplace. There is a lot of help for anyone who is struggling and welfare support for those in desperate need. He said the majority of personnel who find it hard to adjust to civilian life, are those that have been seriously injured or have had a bad experienced on operations and find it difficult to take the mundane, routine parts of civilian life seriously; Post Traumatic Stress Disorder obviously also has an impact on some.

Dennis always tells us it was time to go and he was ready, he did an amazing job and for his wonderful work in the Army Dennis received an MBE, which is a real credit to him.

As chief festival organiser, Dennis also told us how things were shaping up for Spalding and South Holland Festival of Food and Drink.

With over 8,000 visitors expected over the weekend of August 29 and 30, the festival will have a wide range of food-based activities, including locally sourced menus in pubs and restaurants, beer tasting, a farmer’s market and a range of fun activities for children.

If organising the festival doesn’t sound like enough work, Dennis is keeping busy in the meantime.

Following two successful events, Dennis has been asked to perform again at the Bakkavor Party in the Park concert on Saturday, July 18. We all look forward to seeing him there.