LIKE other old chaps who write to this admirable organ, my memories tend to be triggered off by features, articles and letters.

Nick Balsdon on Iraq, under the Royal Engineers' Association badge, recalled for me the worst months of my three years abroad, stationed in the Kenyan Bush.

Someone had the bright idea to relocate the British Army main base from Tel-el-Kebir in Egypt, to Mackinnon Road, Kenya.

The 34th Army Engineer Regiment, consisting of three field squadrons and a field park squadron, under the command of Lieut Col A E Orchard, were given the task of building a water-supply pipeline from the River Tsavo.

It consisted of 33 miles of piping and seven pumping stations to the proposed base at Mackinnon Road.

Living conditions were primitive, water being in short supply. Food was also poor, the occasional small deer that we shot with .303 rifles being a special treat.

My first wedding anniversary (February 12) and 21st birthday (February 15, 1948), was spent in the sick bay tent, suffering from tonsillitis. Two of my brother sergeants visited me, carrying two hard-boiled eggs, one of which was rotten!

When due to return to the UK, I contracted malaria and dysentery. I have just re-read the Book of Job, which could offer some explanation for the above.

COUNTY COUNCILLOR TOM WAREING, Redditch.