REME / SEME Bordon
The School of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering at Bordon, Hampshire, was the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers' trade school — the UK's largest electro-mechanical engineering training establishment — where vehicle mechanics, armourers, metalsmiths and recovery mechanics learned their trade. Its workshops stripped and maintained instructional vehicles, among them a 1952 Series I cut down to a driveable bare chassis and used as a teaching aid until 2014.
History
REME soldiers first arrived at Bordon Camp in Hampshire in 1945, and the School of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering was formed there in 1961 through the amalgamation of 4 and 6 Training Battalions, marked by a ceremony on 17 March that year. SEME took on the Corps' trade training: vehicle mechanics, armourers, metalsmiths, recovery mechanics and electronics technicians of the Army and Royal Marines, at its height with around 1,500 soldiers on career and equipment courses at any one time, working towards qualifications from NVQ Level 2 to Higher National Diploma.
Instruction of that kind needed hardware that could be taken apart, and the school kept vehicles as permanent teaching aids. The best-documented Land Rover example is a 1952 military Series I (chassis 26104724, registration 17 BH 65) stripped to a bare driveable rolling chassis with exposed engine, transmission and running gear, so that trainees could see and work every component. It served at Bordon from the 1960s onwards, was restored to running order by the Dunsfold Collection for Land Rover's 40th anniversary in 1988, and when it was finally retired in 2014 it was the oldest Land Rover still serving with the British Army.
The school did not survive the Defence Technical Training Change Programme announced in July 2011. It was renamed the Defence School of Electronic and Mechanical Engineering (Bordon) in 2012 when its parent college joined the Defence College of Technical Training, and in September 2015 REME training moved from Bordon and Arborfield to MOD Lyneham in Wiltshire; Bordon Garrison closed with the move. Training continues at Lyneham as DSEME.
Vehicles in this registry (1)
Sources & citations
- Defence School of Electronic and Mechanical Engineering (SEME at Bordon Camp; trained Army and Royal Marines armourers, vehicle mechanics, electronic technicians and recovery mechanics; Defence Technical Training Change Programme announced July 2011; REME training transferred from Arborfield and Bordon to Lyneham in September 2015) ↗ — Wikipedia (accessed 2026-09-10)
- Garrison History — Bordon (first REME soldiers 1945; SEME created 1961; ceremonial amalgamation of 4 and 6 Training Battalions 17 March 1961; UK's largest electro-mechanical engineering teaching establishment, ~1,500 soldiers on course; Bordon Garrison closed September 2015 when SEME relocated to Lyneham) ↗ — Prince Philip Park (Bordon Garrison redevelopment) (accessed 2026-09-10)
- Bordon Garrison SEME and Longmoor REME Technical Training Areas ↗ — Woolmer Forest Heritage Society (accessed 2026-09-10)
- 1952 Series I Driveable Chassis Army Training Aid (17 BH 65, chassis 26104724; instructional chassis at SEME Bordon from the 1960s; restored to running order 1988; oldest serving Land Rover in Army service at its 2014 retirement) ↗ — The Dunsfold Collection (accessed 2026-09-10)
Maker record updated 2026-09-10T05:40:28.277Z · status: researched