It is five years ago today that York lost its general. So what role does the Army play in York now? STEPHEN LEWIS'S mission was to find out and report back.

IT was a moment of true military pomp and circumstance - but it was tinged with more than a little sadness.

As a military band played on the lawn in front of the Army's 2nd Division Headquarters at Imphal Barracks on March 31, 2000, a guard of honour from 2 Signal Regiment marched into position under bright sunshine.

Then the 2nd Division flag of two crossed keys was lowered and presented to Major General Robert Gordon to take with him to Edinburgh, where the divisional HQ was being relocated.

Another flag, this time bearing the merlin of 15 (NE) Brigade, which was to remain in York, was raised in its place to symbolise the Army's continued presence in the city.

Despite the promise of that second flag the simple, dignified ceremony brought to an end a glorious chapter in York's proud military history.

The city which had hosted so many great commanders since Roman times had lost its general.

For many, it was a sad day. Maj General Gordon insisted it marked a new beginning for the Army in York, rather than the end.

He pointed out that 150 Gurkhas were joining the 2 Signal Regiment based at Imphal.

They, together with the Defence Vetting Agency which had recently moved to the barracks and the new Medical Group HQ in York, ensured the city would retain a strong military link.

But many felt bitter. Ian MacLaren, a spokesman for the unions representing staff at Imphal, said: "York, and the whole North of England, is losing the prestige of a general's command."

So who was right?

Five years on, the reality is that York remains - in all but the loss of its general - as important a military command centre as it ever was, insists Brigadier Richard Dennis OBE, the commanding officer of 15 (NE) Brigade, whose HQ is at Imphal. The brigade is the biggest and probably most important in the British Army, says Brig Dennis says.

It is responsible for the North Eastern counties from North Lincolnshire to the Scottish Borders - a region that provides 30 per cent of all recruits to the British Army - and trains and administers over 10,500 regular and Territorial Army (TA) soldiers.

These include 2 Signals Regiment, which served with such distinction in Iraq; 4 Parachute Battalion, the only TA paratroopers in the British Army; and the Army Medical Service, based at Strensall. Brig Dennis says it is a very mixed brigade, made up of more than 50 units ranging from infantry, paratroopers and engineers to medics, signallers and transport.

They have one thing in common: all can be deployed at the drop of a hat to fight The Queen's enemies anywhere in the world - and all are administered from here in York.

Anyone who doubts the continued importance of the Army command in York need only look at the record of soldiers belonging to 15 (NE) brigade in the five years since divisional headquarters moved to Scotland, says Brigadier Dennis.

Soldiers from various of the brigade's units have served in every major operation in which the British Army has been involved during that time.

"Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Sierra Leone, Iraq, you name it," said the Brigadier. "2 Signals are still in Iraq."

The importance of the Army in York goes way beyond the prestige of the brigade's involvement in military operations overseas.

It also has a vital emergency planning and home defence role: one which affects all of us.

No one who remembers the great floods of 2000, or the foot and mouth crisis, is likely to forget that.

Four times since 2000, the Army has been called on to help out during a crisis locally, the brigadier pointed out.

First up was the fuel strike in the late summer of 2000. Army drivers were called on to drive oil tankers that ensured supplies of fuel to essential local services.

"They ensured the continued delivery of fuel, so things such as electricity generators for hospitals and schools kept going," said Brig Dennis.

Within just a few weeks, the Army was being called on again - this time to help shore up defences against the worst floods the region had seen for hundreds of years.

Their role was absolutely critical in helping the city in its time of crisis.

"The residents of Selby will tell you it was the Army which was directly responsibly for making sure vulnerable areas of the town did not have to be evacuated," said the brigadier.

Military expertise was called on again during the foot and mouth crisis to help cull livestock and transport the carcasses of slaughtered animals for incineration.

And soldiers were on duty again in 2003 during the firefighters' strike: manning Green Goddesses which provided emergency fire cover.

So is it wrong to say the importance of York as a military centre has decreased since divisional headquarters upped stakes and left?

The brigadier thinks it is.

"Yes, York has lost its general," he said. "But brigade HQ has taken over where divisional HQ left off.

"The salary of the man at the top has changed - but the importance of the HQ has not changed at all. In fact, if anything, it has increased."

What has not changed either is the pride York clearly feels in being an Army city, he said.

What struck him when he first arrived in York as brigade commander eight months ago was the warmth of his welcome. "Speaking as a softy southerner, for whom this was my first posting north of Salisbury plain, I had never come across an area anywhere in the world which was so pro-Army," he said.

"The people are enormously proud of us and supportive of us."

That loyalty to the Army is reflected in the huge number of part-time Territorial Army troops from across the region under the Brigadier's direct operational or administrative command - something like 6,500 of them.

That represented a huge commitment on the part of local people - and of the employers who allowed their staff time off on military duties, said the brigadier.

It is a sure sign that York's proud military tradition is still alive and well.

But what else would you expect of a city and a region whose military history stretches back to the Romans?

York's military importance...

York has been an important military garrison since Roman times.

The Ninth Legion set up its headquarters in Eboracum, as Roman York was known, in AD71.

Just how strategically important York was to the Romans is clear from the fact that Constantine the Great, who made Christianity the religion of the Roman Empire, was proclaimed emperor in the city in AD 306.

It is the city's location at a natural crossroads - and at the confluence of two rivers - that historically made it of such military importance.

It was, as a result, the centre of an important Viking kingdom - and following the Norman invasion King William 1 built two castles in the city. York's importance as a modern military command centre dates back to 1878, when the headquarters of the North East Military District moved here from Manchester.

A headquarters office block was built in Fishergate in 1878 and, in 1882, Bootham House was bought for £5,000 and, as 'Government House', became the residence of the General Officer Commanding-in-Chief.

When the headquarters of Northern Command moved to York in 1905, the same Fishergate offices were retained as HQ, although in 1936 Bootham House was vacated as the general's residence, which moved to Claxton Hall, eight miles north of York, instead. More recently, Imphal Barracks were, until 2000, the headquarters of the British Army's 2nd Division, until divisional HQ moved to Edinburgh. Imphal remains HQ of 15 (NE) Brigade - the Army's largest brigade.

In 1971, the year of the 1900th anniversary of York, the city was granted the honour of being a saluting station. Five times a year on royal occasions such as the Queen's Birthday salutes are fired in the Museum Gardens.

...and Imphal's crucial role

The first cavalry barracks were built on land at Fulford Field in 1793, as part of the great barrack-building programme of William Pitt.

The barracks continued to be occupied by cavalry units with horses until 1939, when the cavalry regiment then stationed at Fulford, the 15/19th Hussars, were equipped with armoured cars.

The infantry presence at Imphal began in 1880, when the 2nd West York Light Infantry moved from their Lowther Street depot to the newly-built infantry barracks. By 1908, more than 1,250 officers and men were stationed there.

The barracks received their present name in 1951 in commemoration of the part played by the West Yorkshire Regiment in the Second World War defence of Imphal in northern Burma against the Japanese - effectively saving India from Japanese invasion.

York City Council conferred on the West Yorkshires 'the title, privilege, honour and distinction of marching through the streets of the City of York on all ceremonial occasions with bayonets fixed, colours flying and bands playing'.

When the regiment merged with the East Yorkshires in 1958 to form the Prince of Wales's Own Regiment of Yorkshire, the council extended the privilege to the new combined regiment.

So Imphal still plays a crucial role.

Updated: 10:14 Thursday, March 31, 2005