Hi all. I'm trying to find out any information on this company and was hoping someone here might be able to help please? I've scoured NA Discovery but have yet to find anything. On my Grandads service record it says "No. 1 Mechanical Equipment....unreadable...Company" and in several other areas it's just abbreviated to MET Coy. I'm thinking maybe it's Mechanical Equipment Training Company perhaps? As it's the first place he goes to after enlistment. I've also seen MET as an abbreviation of Mechanised Transport too, but looking on Discovery at either possiblity brings no results that could possibly be any kind of record or company diary etc. He is in 1 MET Coy between June-September 1940, before going to 135 ME Coy and then finally to 864 ME Coy. I have all the relevant diaries for the last two but I just can't uncover anything about the first one! I have family photos of him during this time, at Hatfield (in uniform) so I'm assuming 1 MET Coy was there, so I've also hunted online for any information about RE in Hatfield but I haven't come up with much so far. Any help or advice is much appreciated. Thanks!
I’m not an expert in British units, but I looked up 135 ME Coy, and it told me it was Royal Engineer: 135 Mechanical Engineers Company Source: FAROE ISLANDS: Royal Engineers: 135 Mechanical Engineers Company, 2 Section (ME Coy 2... | The National Archives Then I check 864 ME Coy, and it told me it was Royal Engineers: 864 Mechanical Equipment Company So, I”m not much help to you, but when all our British friends get on I’m sure they will be able to help
Thank you Temujin. 135 ME Coy was a mechanical equipment company too. He was a part of that for the remainder of '40 and all of '41 and that company was UK based for that period. He then went to 864 in the UK too, before they shipped out to India in July '42. They worked in and around Imphal and Kohima before eventually being flown out in mid '44 and then he was eventually shipped back to the UK at the end of '45
This is the photo that my grandad annotated saying it was 'Royal engineers training at Hatfield, 1st July 1940'. The building behind kind of looks like the DeHaviland factory complex in Hatfield (the white colouration in particular), but it also kind of doesn't and I can't find any photos of the factory complex that have this specific look to them, but I also can't find so far, anything as substantial as that building in wartime Hatfield either, that isn't that factory complex. So it's a bit of a mystery at the moment lol
Here’s a link on this site for the 864 Mechanical Equipment Company, RE in Burma Photos of Royal Engineers 864 Mechanical Equipment Company in India/Burma EDIT, sorry I see you’ve already spotted this info
Its always best to upload a copy of the document for others to read as its possible you may be reading it incorrectly, and other can then provide alternative interpretations TD
In that instance I would conclude it says "Posted to No 1 Mech Equipment Trg (Training) Coy" I assume, as I cant see more of the document, that this was his first posting TD https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C789993 https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C789689 https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C1011418
Thanks TrickyDicky, yes, it was his first assignment after enlisting and he was there for three months. After some more hunting, I've solved the mystery! The photo from July '40 was taken outside the Olding & Co factory in Hatfield! I took a punt on a book about Hatfield in the war as it had one entry for the RE in the index, and it came up lucky! Below is the excerpt: So I'm thinking maybe because it was a kind of official/unofficial training centre, maybe that's why I've been unable to unearth any diary or records of 1 MET Coy on the NA site so far. Looking on the britainfromabove site, I also found a load of photos of the Factory from '49-53 and the main entrance is definitely the location of my Grandads photo! (Especially of you zoom in on the original)
I've found another fun fact too - after the war, Olding and Co dropped their association with caterpillar and went 'all in' with Vickers on the Vickers Vigor tractor (which was powered by a Rolls Royce engine!). Ultimately that failed, however a plastic toy model of the Vigor tractor was used as the base model for two of the vehicles that were carried by Thunderbird 2 in the popular TV show ('Mole' and 'Firefly'). So it's fun to think that for years my dad and grandad watched Thunderbirds together, and then again in the 90s with me and my brother, and the whole time we were inadvertently seeing a model of a tractor that was from the exact factory that trained my grandad to operate Caterpillar tractors in the beginning of his time during the war! And we didn't have a clue lol A Vigor 'Mole' from Thunderbirds