Tyne Electrical Engineers
The Tyne Electrical Engineers is a Volunteer unit of the British Army that has existed under various titles since 1860. It has been the parent unit for a large number of units fulfilling specialist coastal and air defence roles in the Royal Engineers and Royal Artillery, many seeing service during both World Wars. TEE companies currently form part of the RE and of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers in the Army Reserve.
Early history
The 1st Newcastle Engineer Volunteers was raised at company strength in Newcastle upon Tyne during the first enthusiasm for the Volunteer movement engendered by the invasion scare of 1859; its officers' commissions were dated 1 September 1860. The first volunteers came from Armstrong's engineering works at Elswick. The company was attached for administrative purposes to the 1st Newcastle upon Tyne Rifle Volunteer Corps.File:Charles Mark Palmer, Vanity Fair, 1884-10-18.jpg|thumb|Caricature of Sir Charles Palmer by Ape published in Vanity Fair in 1884
Eight years later another unit was formed at Jarrow on the opposite bank of the River Tyne. The 1st Durham EV was raised and commanded by Charles Palmer, founder of Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company and later the first mayor and Member of Parliament for Jarrow. The 1st Durham initially comprised six companies and Palmer was commissioned as Lieutenant-Colonel Commandant.
By 1874 the Newcastle and Durham units were united into the 1st Durham Administrative Battalion EV, consolidated in 1880 as the 1st Newcastle upon Tyne and Durham EV, with Palmer as commanding officer and an establishment of 1300 men.
Submarine miners
, Inspector-General of Fortifications 1882–6, did not have enough Regular Royal Engineers to man the fixed minefields being installed to defend British ports. He decided to utilise the Volunteer Engineers for this task, and the first experiments were carried out in February 1884 on the Tyne with Palmer's 1st Newcastle & Durham EV. By 1886 one of the companies was designated as submarine miners. The system was successfully rolled out to defend other ports around the country. Later units of Submarine Miners were drawn from the Regulars, the Militia and the Volunteers.In 1885 Clarke also sent Volunteers to the Red Sea port of Suakin to assist the Regular REs in railway construction in support of the British force engaged there. The detachment of 40 men was drawn from the 1st Newcastle & Durham EV and the 1st Lancashire EV.
Palmer, by now created Sir Charles Palmer, 1st Baronet of Grinkle Park, retired from the unit in 1888 with the rank of Colonel. The same year, the 1st Newcastle & Durham was split into three separate units: the 1st Newcastle RE , the 1st Durham RE , and the Tyne Division RE, Submarine Miners, with Palmer as Honorary Commandant of both the latter units. The Tyne Submarine Miners consisted of three companies and a number of working boats, and was based at Clifford's Fort, North Shields. Both the 1st Newcastle RE and the Tyne Submarine Miners derived their seniority from the original 1st Newcastle EV established in 1860.
The full dress uniform of the Tyne Submarine Miners consisted of the usual Volunteer RE pattern scarlet tunic with blue facings, white cords and shoulder cords, with the addition of the letters S.M. and the word "TYNE" on the shoulder straps, and a silver grenade badge worn on the right arm by NCOs and trained sappers. The working dress comprised a blue reefer jacket, blue woolen Guernsey sweater, Navy pattern trousers and leather knee-boots, and a Navy pattern cap with a ribbon bearing the words 'Submarine Miners'. Some fishermen recruited at Cullercoats for their skills as boatmen only wore the latter uniform.
Electrical Engineers
In 1895 a searchlight was installed at Clifford's Fort to illuminate the fixed minefield. At first the light was manned by Regulars of the Coast Battalion, RE, but by 1897 these duties were taken on by the Submarine Miners. In 1902 the number of searchlights on the Tyne was increased to four, to cooperate with coast artillery as well as to light the minefield. Meanwhile, a specialist volunteer unit had been formed to develop searchlight defences, and when the submarine mine defences were scrapped in 1907 the Tyne Submarine Miners were redesignated Tyne Electrical Engineers, one of six new Volunteer RE divisions of that specialism converted from submarine miners.In 1906 the unit developed a mobile searchlight and generator mounted on a petrol lorry chassis. This equipment was tested for coast defence operations at Portsmouth, and in conjunction with an RE balloon section on Salisbury Plain. Mobile searchlights became standard equipment the following year.
When the Territorial Force was established in 1908, the Electrical Engineers were to have been redesignated Fortress Engineers, but this was rescinded in the case of London and the Tyne, and the LEE and TEE remained in the order of battle, though the TEE transferred one Electric Light Company to the Durham Fortress Engineers. By January 1914 the TEE had four companies based at North Shields. The unit was known locally as 'The Electricals' or 'The Tynes'.
World War I
In the period of tension in late July 1914 before the outbreak of World War I, two 'special service detachments' of the TEE were mobilised, one taking its place in the Tyne Garrison, the other travelling to man defence lights at Portsmouth. When war was formally declared on 4 August, the remainder of the unit mobilised, No 1 Company in the Tyne defences, Nos 2–4 at Portsmouth, based at Haslar Barracks on the Gosport side of the harbour.Tynemouth
Clifford's Fort remained the TEE's depot, from where the flood of volunteers were sent to Haslar for advanced training. No 1 Company also carried out a range of duties in the Tyne Garrison, such as installing electric generators for the hutted camps, signal stations and hospitals springing up in NE England. When the Hospital Ship Rohilla ran aground of Whitby in October 1914, the TEE set up a searchlight on the clifftop to help rescue operations, while Captain H.E. Burton of the TEE took the Tynemouth Lifeboat Henry Vernon in to help take off survivors. Apart from many awards made to those directly concerned in the "Rohilla" disaster, Major Burton received the Gold Medal of the R.N.L.I., the thanks of the Lords of the Admiralty and his services entered in the records by order of the Army Council, Gold Medal of the Borough of Tynemouth and clasp to Gold Medal of the Tynemouth Trust and silver tea and coffee service by public subscriptions. Later, he was awarded the American Gold Cross of Honour, given once in two years by the United States to a foreign national. This was only the second occasion for such an award. His task completed, he resigned from active life-boat service, knowing that the local men, led by Coxswain Smith, shared his faith in the powered boat.The second world war brought new responsibilities; the Tyne defence and the work in Training Schools. Here, his specialised knowledge of engineering, signalling, telephony, bombing and anti-gas instruction made heavy demands on him. As Commandant, with six instructors, the strength went up to well over a thousand. The measure of his work may be judged by the fact that 10,000 officers and 18,000 n.c.o.s passed through the schools. Apart from other awards, for these services he received the O.B.E., the Coronation Medal as a personal gift from the King and the E.G.M. for gallantry, later exchanged by the King for the George Cross.
Burton was awarded the Empire Gallantry Medal in 1924, which was converted into the George Cross in 1940.
He was also awarded the Tynemouth Medal Trusts Gold medal and bar. Here is an extract from the TMT files.
"Captain HERBERT EDGAR BURTON, Royal Engineers - For gallant service in the Tynemouth Lifeboat “Henry Vernon” on the occasion of the wreck of the steamship “Dunelm” at Blyth on 11 January 1913. The steamship ran ashore in a severe storm on the Sow and Pig Rocks outside of the North Pier at Blyth. Rescue from the shore was proving very difficult and several men were injured in the attempts. Later one rescuer died, so a message was sent to Tynemouth to ask for the motor lifeboat to come and try a rescue in seas where the local pulling lifeboats could not live. The lifeboat set out from the Tyne in atrocious weather under the command of Robert “Scraper” Smith, with Captain Burton on board as mechanical superintendent to tend the engine. By the time they reached Blyth, however, the crew had been rescued. The next morning the lifeboat returned to the Tyne through still mountainous seas and Coxswain Smith was badly injured by a sea which came on board. For their efforts, the following awards were made by the Tynemouth Medal Trust : To Captain Burton, the second Gold Medal; to Coxswain Smith, Frederick Luter of the crew of the “Dunelm” and Coastguard William Marsden of Blyth Coastguard, Silver Medals; to J.G. Smith, Thomas Cummings, J.R. Grant, J.R. Brownlee, and J.S. Brownlee, all of the crew of the Tynemouth lifeboat, Anthony Nixon, Robert Lisle Dawson, Ralph Macarthy, George Renner Armstrong, Adam Robertson and Emanuel Morgan Kelsey, Parchment Certificates. Captain Burton had previously been awarded the Tynemouth Medal Trust's silver medal in August 1904. In 1914, he was also awarded a bar, the only bar awarded to date to his gold medal for the rescue of part of the crew of the hospital ship “Rohilla” at Whitby."
Early in the war a new minefield was laid in the mouth of the Tyne by the Royal Marines and the TEE. Former submarine miners of the TEE were transferred or recalled, and provided many instructors for the new Royal Marine Submarine Miners, who laid and maintained minefields at anchorages all down the east and Channel coasts of the UK during World War I.
Also spun out of the TEE was the Northern Command School of Bombing, Signalling and Telephony, and Field Engineering, commanded by Major Burton until the end of the war.
The first German night air raids on the UK occurred on 19/20 January 1915. The first Anti-Aircraft searchlight in the Tyne Garrison was set up the following month by the RE on the roof of the CWS Flour Mills at Dunston, and later handed over to the TEE. This was an oxy-acetylene light. The first Zeppelin air raid on Tyneside, by Kapitanleutnant Mathy in L9, was on 14 April, and casualties were few. Afterwards an electric searchlight was set up at Carville power station, Wallsend, to work with a 3-inch AA gun operated by the Royal Garrison Artillery. This installation had just been completed when the second air raid on Tyneside took place on 15/16 June. Warning and blackout arrangements were inadequate, and L10 under Kapitanleutnant Hirsch caused considerable damage and casualties to industrial sites, including Palmer's.
The TEE at Clifford's Fort continued to be responsible for coast defence and AA searchlights and for telephones in the Tyne Garrison throughout the war, comprising No 1, No 3 and No 4 Companies, the latter later being split into Nos 34 and 35 AA Companies. The coastal defences were progressively increased, especially at Sunderland and Blyth.