Page 124 - QDG 2023

122 1st The Queen’s Dragoon Guards
Captain Will Groome
William Groome was educated at Oundle School and later Reading University (never heard of it either). Wills passion for all sports meant he naturally gravitated toward 1st The Queen’s Dragoon Guards, commis- sioning in December 2017. Joining The Regiment in 2018, he almost immedi- ately deployed on a gruelling 6-month (some say 6 week) tour of duty in Poland on Op Cabrit.
A true sportsman – have I mentioned that? Will provide some much needed “panache” to the QDG Rugby and Cricket teams. There are few that haven’t experience the thrill of him recounting his famous match winning conversion (some say from the halfway line).
Never one to shy away from a niche
sport - Will next deployed to Norway
to try his hand at Nordic Skiing. This
would serve two purposes; he would be able to further show off his sporting prowess, at the same time tackle a persistent ‘yoghurt based’ issue that he had been dealing with. Having established dominance in almost all events, it was time for warmer climes.
A green soldier through and though, certainly for the early part of his career, Will departed for Kenya with C Sqn, in 2019. Despite being confused for C Sqn OC David Hoey (favouring the same hairstyle), the exercise went without a hitch, Will along with the rest of C SQN success- fully dashed any dreams of the ‘The Rifles’ success. Will further honed his green skills whilst on Ex Wessex Storm – even managing to present his Troop Sgt, the opportu- nity to demonstrate his exceptional troop level recovery skills just moments before the Battlegroup Raid.
Lockdown, a dark day for the Nation. There was only one thing for it, and ‘it’ was, Golf. The final solution to the ever present ‘yoghurt problem.’ Will along with several
other Mess Members ingeniously redeveloped the area surrounding the Officers Mess into a notoriously chal- lenging 18-hole course. With great skill, participants skilfully avoided parked cars, garages, and the assault course – every day reducing their handicap.
Feeling that there was little more to understand about ‘green soldiering,’ Will’s thoughts turned to getting a grip of the Staff Officer sphere – graciously accepting a job offer to be the AMA to 7 Brigade Commander, Brigadier Jasper De Quincy Adams. Not much is known about his time with 7 Brigade other than a nasty nickname about grooming... However, never one to miss out on an opportunity, Will managed to snaffle the role of AMA to Commander Op NEWCOMBE, Brigadier Dan Duff – conveniently coinciding with C Sqns Op NEWCOMBE 2. There he served with
distinction; he worked tirelessly meeting the demands one can expect of an AMA. A much-valued friendly face within Headquarters, Will was always there to provide the background ‘gen’ to any recent issue. Uncharacteristically even ‘deploying’ to Bamako, on a discreet mission, which was absolutely not to collect laundry.
With his time and hairline receding and having now completed Staff Officering. His attentions turned to the relatively untrodden path of the corporate world. Identi- fied as somewhere that was in direly needed someone of his talent. Will saw out the remainder of his career as C Sqn 2IC, notoriously proclaiming that he would “sign anything”.
A true Cavalryman and a Gentleman. Will, shall be missed by all, we wish him the best of luck in his future endeavours. EJD
Captain Howard Paine
In an inexcusable omission, it has come to the editor’s attention that the now long-departed Howard Paine has been allowed to escape to the business world without proper recog- nition. What follows is a true account of the man whose enduring claim to fame will be ‘completing’ the night tray.
Howard came to the Regiment in September
2012. He was immediately suited to life in
Germany, not only as a fluent German speaker
but, more importantly, as an alumnus of a Studentenverbindungen. These fraternity-like
organizations place such a weighted importance
on the consumption of beer that they provide
silver-coated receptacles for its regurgitation to make room for yet more beer. Be it Warsteiner, Paderborner or a numbers (1664), Howard was and remains the unchallenged pintsman.
Howard’s contemporaries from these early days are unani- mous in their condemnation of the peperami thief. Mess lore has
it that if one were missing one’s own swagger stick, it would undoubtedly be discovered in a pile of 4-5 others in Howard’s room. No mali- cious intent is inferred, more a reflection of his occasionally forgetful persona. A trip to retrieve a peperami would reveal further insight on the young Howard; one could normally expect to find him either asleep or, in rarer cases, a recently vacated sleeping bag – bed sheets were an administrative leap too far.
Initially assigned to 3rd Troop B Squadron, Howard was under the auspices of Simon Farebrother. While most young officers have some kind of ‘coming of age’ story of embar-
rassment during their early days, Howard’s is quite unique. During a buildup exercise for a subsequent BATUS exercise, he delayed the squadron’s recovery from the training area, having somehow not only lost a side bin of his Scimitar but, more concerningly, the SA80 it contained.