Obituaries

Former Sgt Brian Edward Traynor

Former Arborfield Apprentice (54B) Brian Traynor has passed away at the age of 82, on 18 January 2021, after a decade-long battle against firstly vascular dementia and more recently Parkinson’s disease.

Although born in Ashtonunder-Lyne, Brian’s early years were spent with his grandparents in Guildford. At the age of seven years he became a boarder at the Duke of York’s School in Dover where he continued until, at the age of 15, he joined the Army Apprentice School in Arborfield. After completion of his threeyear apprenticeship, he transferred from the General Service Corps into REME as a fully qualified B Vehicle Mechanic. His first posting in 1957 was to BAOR. However, due to the untimely death of his father, himself a former WO1 in the Royal Engineers, Brian came back to the UK on compassionate grounds and was posted to a LAD REME in Aldershot.

The following year, he met his future bride-to-be Maureen whom he married in Guildford in May 1959.

In 1961 Brian left the UK to begin a three year posting in Malaya, later followed by Maureen and his 16 month-old daughter, Charisse, courtesy of the ‘luxury cruise liner’ (a very basic troopship) the Nevassa.

His first unit was 2 Infantry Workshop in Taiping, which is just south of Penang, then on to a Field Ambulance LAD in Seremban and finally a REME Workshop in Malacca. By this time his family had grown by two with the arrival of Helen and Anita.

After a short leave in the UK, Brian received his second BAOR tour to Dortmund; a five-year spell during which his son Darrell was born, thus bringing his family tally to six in all.

In 1969, Brian returned to the UK for a three-year posting to the Scots Guards in Edinburgh, after which he and his family returned to Germany once more, this time to 4 Div HQ and Sig Regt in Herford, near Minden.

The move served to further enhance his long-held appreciation of the country, its people and the language. Indeed at a later stage of his life he studied and attained A Level German purely for his own satisfaction.

In 1976 it was back to the UK, this time to Stockton-upon-Tees as a Recruiter, followed by his final three years at the School of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering, in Bordon.

There he established himself as a highly experienced, extremely knowledgeable instructor in vehicle and power plant technology, ably supported by his most friendly and humorous disposition.

So, after many years of military service under his stable belt, civilian Brian tried his hand as a delivery driver for the Co-Op and then as a university lecturer.

However, in 1984 he became bored of the indiscipline of civvy street. He applied for, and was accepted by, the MOD as a civilian instructor back at SEME Regiment, where he continued teaching basic students and upgraders until his eventual retirement at the age of 65.

However, his well-earned rocking chair moment coincided with the expected shortage of instructors at the possible departure of SEME away from Bordon. Brian rallied to the flag and continued in the same role of Vehicle Instructor until 2010, thus bringing his 53 year association with REME to an end aged 71.

Ever the perfectionist, Brian was not only a skilled mechanic but also a very talented carpenter, metal worker and cabinet maker, frequently helping with the repairs and upkeep of his children’s homes and motor vehicles too.

Throughout his life, Brian maintained a high level of fitness, but as his working days drew to an end, so his battle with dementia was just beginning. He eventually succumbed to these cruel diseases on 18 January, leaving behind his wife Maureen, four children, nine grandchildren and 11 great grandchildren.

His was a life well lived. Rest in peace Brian.

Former Corporal Ian Robert Giles

Scribe: Former WO1 (and father) Bob Giles

I sadly have to report the passing of Ian Robert Giles who died on 8 December 2020, after a lengthy illness, at the age of 57.

Ian was born on 19 July 1963 at the British Military Hospital in Hanover into his REME family in Hohne. He attended schools in Bordon, Minden, Munster and Ralston (BATUS) in Canada before returning to the UK, in Donnington.

Shortly after leaving the John Hunt School in Trench, he enlisted at the Army Apprentices College at Arborfield in May 1980 and trained as a VM (B), during his final year at SEME, and on his HGV driving course he met his future wife, Lyn. On completion of his training, he was posted to the School of Artillery at Larkhill and shortly after married Lyn in Portsmouth.

In September 1984 he was posted to BFG in Detmold and then Berlin, serving in the LADs of 8 Regt RCT, the Black Watch and 1 RRF. With the RRF he took part in Op Granby (the liberation of Kuwait) from December 1990 to April 1991, and also on a Winter Repair Programme in BATUS 1987.

He was a very good sportsman, excelling at football and judo. Whilst in Canada, Ian was a keen ice hockey player for the Ralston junior teams and badminton and played football for a Canadian junior football team. As a member of the 1st Ralston Scout Group he was awarded with the Canadian ‘Chief Scouts’ Award.

During his tour in Germany, he continued with his sporting interests representing his unit at various competitions. Also, they had two children: Stephen, born in BMH Rinteln in 1985, and Sarah, in BMH Berlin in 1990.

On retiring in October 1993, he spent his last six months service at 34 Central Workshop in Donnington, the same place from where he started his service in 1980. His first civilian job was at the Workshop working on the same armoured vehicles as he had whilst serving and for a short time as a HGV/FLT driver with Simmonds, a local haulage company. During this period, Ian became involved in the local 10-pin bowling club and, with his son Stephen, in carp fishing. He was a member of the REME Association Shropshire Branch and attended the Telford Armed Forces Veterans Breakfast Club.

In 2014 Ian suffered a stroke and was unable to drive or continue with his trade and on 8 December 2020 he died peacefully at home.

His funeral took place at the Telford Crematorium on Monday 4 January 2021. His coffin, draped with the REME flag, was carried in to the tune of Lilibilero, with the Shropshire Branch Standard being paraded.

Our thoughts and sympathy go to his family, his wife Lyn, their children Stephen and Sarah, and his four grandchildren Macauley (Corky), Kacey, Demi and Brody.