luncheon was hugely successful and it is now hoped it will continue annually. During September WO2 Forsdick organised a fantastic Fathers and Sons dinner night; this had a good turnout of around 80 with the full mess silver present to try and impress our honoured guests. The Drums of the 3rd Bn Royal Welsh was asked to play at the event, and they did an outstanding job entering to the tune of The Great Escape they played a number of well know songs ending with night sticks, with their drummers playing in the dark with flourescent sticks; this was a triumphant success and wowed the Mess with their talent. At the request of the RCM the drummers stayed on after the dinner to give us all private lessons; this obviously cost a lot in beer money but was well worth it. Our very own LCpl Martin Semple, a comedian on the circuit, also did a turn taking full licence to heckle any Warrant Officer or Senior willing to interrupt him. Overall, a very good evening was had by all attending Mess members. The senior Mess Members are: WO1 (RCM) S Fry MC LG, WO1 (ASM)
WO2 (SCM) Newell, WO2 Forsdick, WO1 (RCM) Fry MC, WO1 Flynn CGC MC, WO2 (SCM) Eulert with the Drums Platoon of the 3rd Bn Royal Welsh
N Wright REME, WO1 (BM) I Colin RHG/D, WO2 (RQMC) D Robson RHG/D, WO2 (RQMC (T)) P Ireland RHG/D, WO2 (AQMS) S Oldrid REME, WO2 (RAOWO) L Johnson AGC (SPS), WO2 (SCM) J Moses RHG/D, WO2 (SCM) S McWhirter RHG/D, WO2
(SCM) S Parker RHG/D, WO2 (SCM) C Eulert RHG/D, WO2 (SCM) D Daley RHG/D, WO2 (RSWO) P Carrington LG, WO2 (MTWO) T Aston, RHG/D, WO2 (TWWO) J Forsdick LG, WO2 (BCM) S Marsh RHG/D.
Quartermaster’s Department by Capt J Pass
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012 has been another quiet year for the Quartermasters Department. It has provided Real Life Support to the HCR Brigade Study Day, where the Master Cook, SSgt Mark Luff, was in the hot seat ensuring he could feed over 500 people in 45mins! A challenge he told everyone was a doddle and through excellent delivery by his team of Chefs the meals were on cue and delicious. This was shortly followed by the QM and CoH Johnson hitting the autobahn and deploying to Sennelager, Germany, in support of the CAST/CATT exercise.
Bratties and beer were in high demand as it had been 20 years since the QM was last in Sennelager and no surprises, it hasn’t changed.
Around this time we also said farewell to LCpl Backhouse, who left the dept to become the POL Storeman in MT. Graham had been a stalwart in the dept and it was a shame to see him go. LCpl Rose also left to go back to the Sqn’s and complete his crew commanders course, Rosey had been with the troop for over a year and amongst other things, lost a lot of weight and got himself fit. One new addition to the Dept was LCpl Elder (QDG) who has joined the troop on detachment from his regiment; he slotted in very nicely and took over the PRI Shop in April as the regiment was going to BATUS; he has had a very The refurbished ‘Front of House’ productive
period, transforming the ‘new look’ PRI. April saw the RQMC Robson, LCpl Quinn and LCpl Woodward all deploy to BATUS for 3 months facilitating Ex PRAIRIE THUNDER 1 & 2. Over this period SCpl Goater ensured the department was in good hands and prepared for the Olympic rush; Op Olympic saw over 120 extra personnel arrive into the recently re-furbished Block 4. During their security cycles at Dorney rowing lake they were efficiently looked after by LCoH Solis, LCoH Kemp and LCpl Elder over the summer holiday period. Various exercises over the remaining part of the year saw the QMs Dept deploy in support of: the All Ranks Briefings, Dismounted Close Combat firing in Kirkcudbright, Castlemartin for annual firing, Lydd & Hythe range package, Thetford for the CFX and further support to the CALFEX’s and FTX exercises. Works projects have been ticking over despite the MOD’s severe lack of money. Improvements have been made to the Guardroom, Medical Centre, B Veh Servicing Bay, the Stables, Dental Centre, Blocks 3 & 4 and a series of security enhancements have been made all around the site with additional CCTV. Most significantly the new Operational Loading Capability (new parade
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