Ray Rigg - Joining the Army and Basic Training
This page is part of the fuller description of Ray Rigg's early life and his war time role and experiences , to return to the shorter version click here.
As the oncoming of a second war in Europe became clear, he made the decision not to wait to be conscripted but to enlist in the Regular Army. He initially joined the Coldstream Guards and recalled spending the first two weeks of his army life sleeping on the floor of Pablo's Ice Cream Parlour on the South Promenade in Blackpool! His Father advised him that in the Royal Engineers he would be able to use and grow his skills from working on the railway in peacetime, so he then successfully sought a transfer to that regiment. |
Initial Training
1 Coy, 19 Tech. Try. Bn., No2 Railway Trg Centre. Weston Camp Derby March 1940.
After completing his initial training at Weston Camp, Derby, which included time spent training on a requisitioned railway branch line in Staffordshire where he learned about War Department railway operating methods and practices, he was posted to Egypt in the Middle East as part of the Eighth Army.
(Photo left; back row; Messrs Finberg, Thomson, Henry, Potter, Rigg. front row; Gibson, Moore, MacDonald).
(Photo left; back row; Messrs Finberg, Thomson, Henry, Potter, Rigg. front row; Gibson, Moore, MacDonald).
The Rigg Family of Southwestern Lakeland © Michael Rigg 2021