Madras Sappers and Miners

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The Madras Sappers and Miners were part of the Indian Army Engineer Soldier Corps comprised the three armies of the Presidencies [1]:-


Not to be confused with The Madras Engineers being Engineers of one of the Honourable East India Company Armies. By the 1740’s each military administration of each presidency had its own cadre of British engineer officers, they were titled:-the Bombay Engineers, the Madras Engineers and the Bengal Engineers [2]


The Madras Sappers and Miners originated from two companies of Pioneers raised in 1780 called the 'Madras Pioneers', which were expanded and titled 'Corps of Madras Pioneers' but was renamed the 'Corps of Madras Sappers and Miners' in 1831 [1]. The senior Officers were British and the loosely organised military units were later combined into battalions with Indian officers commanding local troops. Officers were in the early years very conscious of the soldiers' local customs, caste rituals, dress, and social hierarchy.

Chronology

  • 1780 raised as Madras Pioneers
  • 1792 renamed Corps of Madras Pioneers
  • 1831 renamed as Madras Sappers and Miners
  • 1876 renamed Corps of Queen's Own Madras Sappers and Miners
  • 1903 became 2nd Queen's Own Madras Sappers and Miners
  • 1911 became 2nd Queen Victoria's Own Madras Sappers and Miners
  • 1923 became Queen Victoria's Own Madras Sappers and Miners
  • 1932 merged with Bengal and Bombay Sappers to form the Corps of Indian Engineers
  • 1941 became Queen Victoria's Own Sappers and Miners Group, Indian Engineers
  • 1946 became Queen Victoria's Own Madras Group, Royal Indian Engineers
  • 1832 merged with Bengal and Bombay Sappers to form the Corps of Indian Engineers
  • 1947 half allocated to India on Partition and half to Pakistan
  • 1950 Madras Centre, Corps of Engineers

External Links

Historical Books Online

Plans and Views illustrating the Journals of the Sieges of the Madras Army, etc by Edward Lake, 1825. British Library itemViewer. Note (for at least some browsers) the full screen option only seems to display adequately in the one page option, and even then, the right side of some maps may not display. Also available as a pdf download, accessible through the BL Main catalogue. Note there are two online versions of this publication, one is said to be of an ‘imperfect’ original.

References

Our grateful thanks to The Royal Engineers Museum and Library, Prince Arthur Road, Gillingham, Kent, ME4 4UG, England for permission to cite directly from their website. Some records on websites do not give clear distinctions between the ‘Sappers and Miners’ and the ‘Engineers’.