As part of the Month of Remembrance, the Household Cavalry Foundation has decided to honour former Household Cavalryman, Pete Storer, who has devoted many years of service to the British Army and Police Force and now volunteers at the Household Cavalry Museum at Combermere Barracks in Windsor.
We asked him to relay the story of his time in service, and this is what he said:
“I joined The Blues and Royals in March 1971, trained at Pirbright and Catterick and arrived at Windsor in September 1971 where I was posted to B Sqn. I then served in Belfast (1971/72), Londonderry for Op Motorman (1972), Cyprus with the UN (1972/73), Belfast again (1974), back to Cyprus for the Turkish invasion (1974) and then to HCMR in early 1975. I spent most of 1977 travelling around the country as part of the Queen’s Silver Jubilee celebrations, I didn’t get a medal though!
In the meantime, I’d also got married in 1974 and been promoted to LCpl in 1972 and LCoH in 1974.
I stayed at Knightsbridge until early 1978 and was then posted back to the Regiment in BAOR in time to get promoted to CoH and move to COT in time for a tour as infantry in Belfast in 1979.
I returned to HCMR as a Troop CoH in late 1979 and as I now had a young son, my own house and another child on the way, I left the Army having completed 9 years service in August 1980.
I joined the Thames Valley Police straight away and was posted to Burnham in Buckinghamshire and did several months on the miner’s strike and Greenham Common peace demo’s as part of a Police Support Unit during 1983-85.
At the beginning of 1985 I joined the Firearms team where I stayed until 1990 (including the Hungerford massacre 1987). In 1990 I left the team via some protection work, and became a firearms instructor, sniper and trainer.
I felt that I had outstayed my welcome on firearms by 1998 so I returned to police work at Slough where I worked in the control room, drug enforcement team and Intelligence team before leaving the police in 2008 as a Detective Sergeant.
Towards the end of my police service I had gained a BA (Hons) in History from the Open University, so when the opportunity of helping in the Household Cavalry Museum at Combermere Barracks came up I jumped at the chance, and here I am…”
