Tim "Nail It" Spiers

TIM SPIERS

Tim was born March 1964 in Bicester Cottage Hospital, Oxfordshire. He was raised on his parent’s farm, near Buckingham, which was bought by his great granddad prior to WW2. Having surprised everyone on passing his 12 plus exam, Tim underwent his secondary education at The Royal Latin Grammar School, Buckingham and gained 6 ‘O’ Levels. He competed at cricket and cross country running for his school and rode schoolboy motocross for 3 seasons on a Honda CR125.

Shortly after completing his exams at school and already having been to the Army Careers office, Tim took up his guaranteed placement at the Army Apprentice’s College Arborfield, near Reading, on the 9^th September 1980. He completed a 2 year motor vehicle apprenticeship, which was rewarded by gaining City and Guilds in Light Vehicle Mechanics and a National Craft Certificate. His sporting achievements whilst at the college were for small and full-bore shooting, cross country skiing and orienteering. Tim also managed to get promoted to the rank of Apprentice Company Sergeant Major.

After completing an Armoured Vehicle equipment course at the School of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering, Bordon in Hampshire, in early 1983, Tim was posted to Osnabruck in Germany to the 5^th Royal Enniskillen Dragoon Guards who had Chieftain Tanks. They were then replaced by the 4^th Royal Tank Regiment. During his first posting as an A Vehicle mechanic Tim was involved in major exercises in Canada and full scale Field Training Exercises across the German countryside. He remained a keen runner and ran for the regiment, including the Berlin Marathon and International 25km races.

1985 saw Tim posted back to the UK to the Royal School of Artillery, Larkhill where he was promoted to Lance Corporal and completed various courses to enable him to become a Vehicle Mechanic 1^st Class. From Larkhill it was back to Soest in Germany where Tim took up the post of vehicle commander of Forward Repair Group 11 Armoured Workshop, which carried out the forward repair and recovery of armoured vehicles on the battlefield. During this posting Tim was promoted to Corporal and deployed on the first Gulf War seeing action supporting 4 Armoured Brigade. On the sporting front Tim was in the orienteering team that was runners up in the army championships, played centre for the workshop rugby team and qualified to shoot at Bisley in the combined services competition.

During 1993, after a short posting to the Royal Armoured Corps Gunnery School at Lulworth, Tim started his 18 month Artificer training course at Bordon Hants. All those attending the course were promoted to Sergeant and on completion of the course promoted again to Staff Sergeant. Also all the hard work was rewarded with a HNC in Mechanical Engineering. Whilst on this course Tim decided to come out of retirement and start riding enduro bikes again and represented the Corps in the British Enduro Championships where he had some good results including 3 gold medals.

Tim’s first posting as a shiny new Artificer Staff Sergeant, in 1995 was back to Germany to the 2^nd Royal Tank Regiment who had just amalgamated with the 3^rd Royal Tank Regiment in Fallingbostel. He was responsible for the maintenance and repair of a squadron of Challenger tanks and also a fleet of light reconnaissance vehicles in Canada for 6 months. After a two year tour came a posting with a different angle and a whole lot of different experience, it was with the TA, 152 Ambulance Regiment Royal Logistic Corps who were based in Belfast and Londonderry. This was a rewarding posting with responsibilities to train TA soldiers and all the hassles of organising it and living with the security issues in the province.

On promotion to Artificer Quartermaster Sergeant Major, Tim received a posting back to the mainland to Netheravon in Wilts, to take up the post of Brigade Artificer at HQ 1 (UK) Reconnaissance Brigade but unfortunately the formation was drawn down under SDR after 12 months of being there, so Tim was moved to 6 Battalion Workshop in nearby Tidworth where he became the Forward Platoon Warrant Officer, responsible for the day to day running of the Forward Repair Teams supporting units on exercises and operations. It was during this posting that Tim deployed to Bosnia and Kosovo on operational tours with the UN peace keeping forces.

As a thank you to all his hard work Tim was promoted again in 2000, to Artificer Sergeant Major and posted to 6 Supply Regiment Royal Logistic Corps in Gutersloh, Germany. Again another challenging experience as this unit held everything from field laundries, bakeries, fuel supply equipment and tankers to the large containers handling equipment. A highlight during this tour was a 6 month deployment on exercise to Oman operating a 1000km supply line across the desert.  Tim also had the additional responsibility of being the Brigade Recovery Officer, coordinating the recovery of crashes, break downs and back loading of all vehicles on the exercise.

Finally, Tim’s last posting in the Army took him back to Andover in Hampshire to the Defence Logistics Organisation. Basically it was a desk job working with civil servants on currents operations for the Light Armoured Systems Support Integrated Project Team. It was responsible for the management of our Armoured Personnel Carrier fleet and Armoured Light Reconnaissance vehicles. During this period, the idea and plans to start SPOD Motorcycle Engineering were born and after leaving the Army in March 2004, but into action.