Royal Engineers


The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers, and commonly known as the Sappers, is the military engineering arm of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces and is headed by the Chief Royal Engineer.
The Corps Headquarters and the Royal School of Military Engineering are in Chatham in Kent, England. The corps is divided into several regiments, barracked at places in the United Kingdom and around the world.

History

The Royal Engineers trace their origins back to the military engineers brought to England by William the Conqueror, specifically Bishop Gundulf of Rochester Cathedral, and claim over 900 years of unbroken service to the Crown. Engineers have always served in the armies of the Crown; however, the origins of the modern corps, along with those of the Royal Artillery, lie in the Board of Ordnance established in the 15th century.
In Woolwich in 1716, the board formed the Royal Regiment of Artillery and established a Corps of Engineers that was exclusive to commissioned officers. The manual work for this corps was done by separate Artificer Companies of contracted civilian artisans and labourers until in 1772 a Soldier Artificer Company was established for service in Gibraltar that was the first instance of non-commissioned military engineers.
In 1787, the officer Corps of Engineers was granted the royal prefix and became known as the Royal Engineers. The officer Royal Engineers during the 19th century were a socially exclusive elite land-marine force, whose officers were drawn from the upper middle class and landed gentry of British society, who performed, in addition to military engineering, 'reconnaissance work, led storming parties, demolished obstacles in assaults, carried out rear-guard actions in retreats and other hazardous tasks'.
Also in 1787, a subordinate Corps of Royal Military Artificers was formed of non-commissioned officers and privates to be directed by the Royal Engineers. In 1797, the Soldier Artificer Company of Gibraltar was incorporated into that Corps of Royal Military Artificers and in 1812 that unit's name was changed to the Corps of Royal Sappers and Miners. This Corps of Royal Sappers and Miners remained unintegrated with the officer Royal Engineers until 1856.
The corps has no battle honours. In 1832, the regimental motto, Ubique & Quo Fas Et Gloria Ducunt was granted. The motto signified that the corps had seen action in all of the major and many of the minor conflicts of the British Army.
In 1855, when the Board of Ordnance was abolished, authority over the Royal Engineers, Corps of Royal Sappers and Miners, and Royal Artillery, was transferred to the Commander-in-Chief of the Forces. In 1856, the Royal Engineers and the Corps of Royal Sappers and Miners were integrated to form the Corps of Royal Engineers, who were to be headquartered at Chatham, Kent.
The re-organisation of the British military that began in the mid-nineteenth century and stretched over several decades included the reconstitution of the Militia, the raising of the Volunteer Force, and the ever-closer organisation of the part-time forces with the regular army. The old Militia had been an infantry force, other than the occasional employment of militiamen to man artillery defences and other roles on an emergency basis. This changed in 1861, with the conversion of some units to artillery roles. Militia and Volunteer Force engineering companies were also created, beginning with the conversion of the militia of Anglesey Royal Engineers|Anglesey] and Monmouthshire Royal Engineers|Monmouthshire] to engineers in 1877.
The Militia and Volunteer Force engineers supported the regular Royal Engineers in a variety of roles, including the Submarine Mining Service operating the boats required to tend the submarine mine defences that protected harbours in Britain and its empire. These included a submarine mining militia company that was authorised for Bermuda in 1892, but never raised, and the Bermuda Volunteer Engineers that wore Royal Engineers uniforms and replaced the regular Royal Engineers companies withdrawn from the Bermuda Garrison in 1928. The part-time reserve forces were amalgamated into the Territorial Force in 1908, which was retitled the Territorial Army after the First World War, and the Army Reserve in 2014.
Units from the Royal Engineers and Royal Artillery were in Australia, even after Federation.
In 1911, the corps formed its Air [Battalion Royal Engineers|Air Battalion], the first flying unit of the British Armed Forces. The Air Battalion was the forerunner of the Royal Flying Corps and Royal Air Force.
The First World War saw a rapid transformation of the Royal Engineers as new technologies became ever more important in the conduct of warfare and engineers undertook an increasing range of roles. In the front line they designed and built fortifications, operated poison gas equipment, repaired guns and heavy equipment, and conducted underground warfare beneath enemy trenches. Support roles included the construction, maintenance and operation of railways, bridges, water supply and inland waterways, as well as telephone, wireless and other communications. As demands on the Corps increased, its manpower was expanded from a total of about 25,000 in August 1914, to 315,000 in 1918.
In 1915, in response to German mining of British trenches under the then static siege conditions of the First World War, the corps formed its own tunnelling companies. Manned by experienced coal miners from across the country, they operated with great success until 1917, when after the fixed positions broke, they built deep dugouts such as the Vampire dugout to protect troops from heavy shelling.
Before the Second World War, Royal Engineers recruits were required to be at least 5 feet 4 inches tall, 5 feet 2 inches for the Mounted Branch. They initially enlisted for six years with the colours and a further six years with the reserve or four years and eight years. Unlike most corps and regiments, in which the upper age limit was 25, men could enlist in the Royal Engineers up to 35 years of age. They trained at the Royal Engineers Depot in Chatham or the Royal Engineer Mounted Depot at Aldershot.
In the 1980s, the Royal Engineers formed the vital component of at least three Engineer Brigades: 12 Engineer Brigade ; 29th Engineer Brigade; and 30th Engineer Brigade. After the Falklands War, 37 Engineer Regiment was active from August 1982 until 14 March 1985.

Regimental museum

The Royal Engineers Museum is in Gillingham in Kent.

Major projects

British Columbia

The elite Royal Engineers, Columbia Detachment, was chosen by Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Secretary of State for the Colonies, to transform the new Colony of British Columbia into the British Empire's 'bulwark in the farthest west' and to 'found a second England on the shores of the Pacific'. It was commanded by Colonel Richard Clement Moody, who was responsible for the foundation and settlement of British Columbia as the Colony of British Columbia, and included several officers who subsequently attained distinction, including John Marshall Grant and Henry Spencer Palmer.

Royal Albert Hall

The Royal Albert Hall was designed by Captain Francis Fowke and Major-General Henry Y. D. Scott of the Royal Engineers and built by Lucas Brothers. The designers were heavily influenced by ancient amphitheatres, but had also been exposed to the ideas of Gottfried Semper while he was working at the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Indian infrastructure

Much of the British colonial era infrastructure of India, of which elements survive today, was created by engineers of the three presidencies' armies and the Royal Engineers. Lieutenant Arthur Thomas Cotton, Madras Engineers, was responsible for the design and construction of the great irrigation works on the river Cauvery, which watered the rice crops of Tanjore and Trichinopoly districts in the late 1820s.
In 1838, he designed and built sea defences for Vizagapatam. He masterminded the Godavery Delta project where of land were irrigated and of land to the port of Cocanada was made navigable in the 1840s. Such regard for his lasting legacy was shown when in 1983, the Indian Government erected a statue in his memory at Dowleswaram.
Other irrigation and canal projects included the Ganges Canal, where Colonel Sir Colin Scott-Moncrieff acted as the Chief Engineer and made modifications to the original work. Among other engineers trained in India, Scott-Moncrieff went on to become Under Secretary of State Public Works, Egypt where he restored the Nile barrage and irrigation works of Lower Egypt.

Rideau Canal

The construction of the Rideau Canal was proposed shortly after the War of 1812, when there remained a persistent threat of attack by the United States on the British colony of Upper Canada. The initial purpose of the Rideau Canal was military, as it was intended to provide a secure supply and communications route between Montreal and the British naval base in Kingston, Ontario. Westward from Montreal, travel would proceed along the Ottawa River to Bytown, then southwest via the canal to Kingston and out into Lake Ontario. The objective was to bypass the stretch of the St. Lawrence River bordering New York State, a route which would have left British supply ships vulnerable to attack or a blockade of the St. Lawrence. Construction of the canal was supervised by Lieutenant-Colonel John By of the Royal Engineers. Directed by him, Lieutenant William Denison, determined the strength for construction purposes of old growth timber in the vicinity of Bytown, findings commended by the Institution of Civil Engineers in England.

Dover's Western Heights

The Western Heights of Dover are one of the most impressive fortifications in Britain. They comprise a series of forts, strong points and ditches, designed to protect the United Kingdom from invasion. They were created to augment the existing defences and protect the key port of Dover from both seaward and landward attack. First given earthworks in 1779 against the planned invasion that year, the high ground west of Dover, England, now called Dover Western Heights, was properly fortified in 1804 when Lieutenant-Colonel William Twiss was instructed to modernise the existing defences. This was part of a huge programme of fortification in response to Napoleon's planned invasion of the United Kingdom. To assist with the movement of troops between Dover Castle and the town defences Twiss made his case for building the Grand Shaft in the cliff:

"... the new barracks. ... are little more than 300 yards horizontally from the beach. ... and about above high-water mark, but in order to communicate with them from the centre of town, on horseback the distance is nearly a mile and a half and to walk it about three-quarters of a mile, and all the roads unavoidably pass over ground more than above the barracks, besides the footpaths are so steep and chalky that a number of accidents will unavoidably happen during the wet weather and more especially after floods. I am therefore induced to recommend the construction of a shaft, with a triple staircase ... the chief objective of which is the convenience and safety of troops ... and may eventually be useful in sending reinforcements to troops or in affording them a secure retreat."

Twiss's plan was approved and building went ahead. The shaft was to be in diameter, deep with a gallery connecting the bottom of the shaft to Snargate Street, and all for under an estimated £4000. The plan entailed building two brick-lined shafts, one inside the other. In the outer would be built a triple staircase, the inner acting as a light well with "windows" cut in its outer wall to illuminate the staircases. Apparently, by March 1805 only of the connecting gallery was left to dig and it is probable that the project was completed by 1807.

Pentonville Prison

Two Acts of Parliament allowed for the building of Pentonville Prison for the detention of convicts sentenced to imprisonment or awaiting transportation. Construction started on 10 April 1840 and was completed in 1842. The cost was £84,186 12s 2d. Captain Joshua Jebb designed Pentonville Prison, introducing new concepts such as single cells with good heating, ventilation and sanitation.

Boundary Commissions

Although mapping by what became the Ordnance Survey was born out of military necessity it was soon realised that accurate maps could be also used for civil purposes. The lessons learnt from this first boundary commission were put to good use around the world where members of the Corps have determined boundaries on behalf of the British as well as foreign governments; some notable boundary commissions include: