Corps of Royal Engineers

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Known as the Royal Engineers (RE) or commonly as the Sappers.

The Signals Service was part of the Royal Engineers up until the time of the creation of the separate Royal Corps of Signals in June 1920.

Chronology

  • 1716 Corps of Engineers consisting of officers only formed by the Board of Ordnance
  • 1772 Soldier Artificer Company comprising other ranks raised in Gibraltar
  • 1787 officer corps became the Royal Corps of Engineers. Corps of Royal Military Artificers comprising NCOs and private raised
  • 1797 Gibraltar company absorbed by the Corps of Royal Military Artificers
  • 1812 Corps of Royal Military Artificers became Corps of Royal Sappers and Miners
  • 1856 Royal Engineers and Royal Sappers and Miners became a unified corps as the Corps of Royal Engineers
  • 1862 1 April, the three engineer corps of the East India Company:- Bengal Engineers, Bombay Engineers and the Madras Engineers were amalgamated into the Corps of Royal Engineers absorbing the British officers and men [1].

Also see

Regimental History

History of the Corps of Royal Engineers has been published in twelve volumes, the first two being available online, refer below. The other volumes are

  • Volume III: Covers the Sudan Campaigns and Boer War 1899-1902, by Colonel Sir Charles Watson, published 1915. Volume IV: 1885-1914. by Brigadier-General W. Baker Brown. published 1952.
  • Volume V: The Home Front, France Flanders and Italy in the First World War. Volume VI: Gallipoli, Macedonia, Egypt and Palestine 1914-18. Volume VII: Campaigns in Mesopotamia and East Africa, and the inter-war period, 1918-38. Volumes 5-7 edited by H.L. Pritchard, published 1952. Note: Volume VI does not include information about Signals as "The history of their work is being produced by the Royal Corps of Signals themselves"[2], so it is likely the other volumes for the WW1 period similarly do not include information about Signals.
  • Volume VIII: Campaigns in France and Belgium, 1939-40; Norway, Middle East, East Africa, Western Desert, North West Africa, and activities in the U.K. by Major-General R. P. Pakenham-Walsh.
Volume IX: Campaigns in Sicily and Italy; the War Against Japan; North-west Europe, 1944-45; minor and non-operational areas; post-war, 1945-48 by Major-General R. P. Pakenham-Walsh. Both published 1958. Note: War Against Japan includes c 200 pages regarding India, Burma, Hong Kong and Malaya. [3]
  • Volume X: 1945-1960. Volume XI: 1960 to 1980. Volume XII: 1980-2000.

Regimental flash

The flash, also known as a pagri (puggaree) badge, was generally affixed to the pagri on the sun helmet. The Royal Engineers had three styles of flashes. The first was a rectangular one with blue and red in equal halves - blue to the front. This was introduced in 1884 during the Sudan Campaign. During the 2nd Boer War they adopted a plain yellow flash to better distinguish them from the RA and then in 1902 changed to a red rectangular flash with two narrow royal blue lines near the outer edges i.e. red/blue/red/blue/red.[4]

It is difficult to identify Foreign Service (Wolseley Pattern) helmet flashes because the type of black & white film used at that time distorted coloration. [5]

External Links

Historical books online

  • History of the Corps of Royal Engineers Vol I by Maj-Gen Whitworth Porter 1889 Archive.org
    Military History to 1860 (Note: catalogued as Volume III, but is Volume I) Archive.org
  • History of the Corps of Royal Engineers Vol II by Maj-Gen Whitworth Porter 1889 Archive.org. Military History 1867- 1885, together with Part II Organization, Part III Departmental and Civil Work.
  • History of the Royal Sappers and Miners: from the formation of the Corps in March 1772, to the date when its designation was changed to that of Royal Engineers, in October 1856 by T W J Connolly, QuarterMaster of the Royal Engineers. 2nd edtion, with considerable additions 1857 (first edition 1855) With coloured plates
Volume I, Volune II Google Books
Same digital files HathiTrust Digital Library, where images may be rotated. Volume I, Voolume II
Volume 1 1837 Volume 2 1838 Volume 3 1839 Volume 4 1840 Volume 5 1842 Volume 7 1845 Volume 8 1845 Volume 10 1849
Note that the volumes which are digitised specifically for Archive.org may have better plans and maps compared with those that are, or are copied from, Google Books. An example is the books from the University of Toronto
For some papers from these volumes, see 1st Afghan War, Battle of Meeanee, 1st Sikh War, 2nd China War and Abyssinian Campaign. Other papers include
  • "Geographical Surveying In India" by Colonel Sir T H Holdich 1898 Paper XI, Professional Papers of the Corps of Royal Engineers: Occassional Papers Volume XXIV 1898 pages 289-305 Archive.org
The Indian Borderland, 1880-1900 by Colonel Sir T Hungerford Holdich 1901 edition, Second and cheaper edition 1909 Archive.org
India by Colonel Sir Thomas Hungerford Holdich 1904 Archive.org
The Gates of India, being an Historical Narrative by Colonel Sir Thomas Holdich 1910
Political Frontiers and Boundary Making by Col. Sir Thomas H Holdich 1916
Indian Engineers
An earlier book is The Indian Sappers and Miners by E. W. C Sandes [Edward Warren Caulfeild] 1948. (726p). Covers the period from the pioneers in 1759 to the prelude to the Second World War. Available at the British Library UIN: BLL01011278725

References

  1. The Royal Engineers Museum and Library “Corps History Part 10 – Engineers of the Honourable East India Company Army 1750-1862”; Retrieved 17 Aug 2016
  2. michaeldr. Royal Engineers soldier abandoned in Gallipoli Great War Forum 29 June 2017. Retrieved 30 June 2017.
  3. idler. Book content question: R E History WW2Talk Forum 13 December 2015. Retrieved 13 December 2105
  4. Stuart_Bates. helmet flashes Victorian Wars Forum 15 November 2010. Retrieved 5 March 2016
  5. FROGSMILE. Help needed ID-ing unit flash on pith helmet Great War Forum 30 May 2011. Retrieved 5 March 2016.
  6. Great War Forum