Serving as Army Reserve specialists in the Royal Engineers, the British Army has three geologists within its ranks. Whilst few in number, deep specialist military and civilian geological knowledge enables these geologists to provide support to operations, training and sustaining the defence estate.

Whilst a primary role will always remain ‘warfighting’, British Army geologists have been on-call for UK Resilience tasks, contributed to overseas humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations, and supported capacity building training in numerous countries around the world.

This presentation aims to provide an introduction to military geology and shine a Davy lamp on the topic of Subterranean Warfare which, whilst being as old as warfare itself, has had somewhat of a resurgence in recent years. The reasons for this, the threats therein, and what is being done to counter them will be investigated using historical and contemporary examples.