Brompton

I would like to give you some info about 521STRE, this was a Welldrilling specialist team of which I was a member on a few postings, namely 12 months in Kenya, 6 in Libya and 6 in Anguilla. All courses being done at RSME Gillingham, under Sgt "Dodger" Green ( now deceased ) and Cpl Bill Thomas. Major Theobald was OC for quite a while, WO1 Joe Bastin also a long serving member of the non drilling side of operations. I have a lot of photo's which you may be interested in of the team in Kenya and Anguilla.
 
                                                                                             Best Wishes TaffC

This from Tom Gleeson -

Prior to 1964, welldrilling in the corps was , in the main , represented by a wellboring section located at CEP Long Marston and a training facility at the RSME .

In the spring of 1964, 521 Specialist Team RE (Wellboring) was established as an entity , at Long Marston . Soon after , it relocated to the Old Barracks in Maidstone. The team personnel were ;

                                                                                              Lt `Russ` Theobald          E & MO

                                                                                          SSgt `Tom` Gleeson           C of W (M)

                                                                                            Sgt `Mick` Fisher               Welldriller

                                                                                       Cpl ` Dodger`Green               Welldriller

                                                                                    LCpl ` Scouse` Diable              Welldriller

                                                                                       LCpl ` Hargy` Hargreaves     Welder

                                                                                          Cpl ` Milly`   Millington         Stmn Tech

The first project undertaken by the team was to provide a series of wells along the proposed route of the ` Dhala Road `, linking the port of Aden with the township of Dhala on the Yemen border.

In July 1964, the team was joined by ten trainee welldrillers and two drivers.( the term wellboring was dropped in favour of welldrilling).The unit departed for Aden on the 6th August 1964. Leaving three of the trainee drillers in Aden, to form the nucleus of a welldrilling section within MELF Park Sqn, the remainder of the unit returned to the UK. in April 1965.

In the early seventies, the team relocated to Barton Stacey and in the mid eighties, moved to Chillwell , where it is now part of 170 (Infrastructure Support) Engineer Group.