Bombay Sappers and Miners

The Bombay Sappers and Miners were part of the Indian Army Engineer Soldier Corps comprised the three armies of the Presidencies :-

• The Bombay Sappers and Miners (1777)
• The Madras Sappers and Miners (1780)
• The Bengal Sappers and Miners (1803)

Not to be confused with The Bombay 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

The Bombay Sappers and Miners originated from a company of 'Lascar Pioneer' in 1777, which was redesignated as 'The Pioneer Corps'. In 1799 a 'Corps of Engineer Lascars and Pontoon Train' was raised its was later renamed the 'Sapper and Miners Company' and by 1820 was merged with the Pioneer Corps. In 1830 it was called the 'Engineers Corps' and seven years later the 'Corps of Bombay Sappers and Miners' (1837). With the Kitchener Reforms in 1903 it was re-titled '3rd Sapper and Miners' and in 1923 become the 'Royal Bombay Sapper and Miners'. In 1941 they became the 'Royal Bombay Sappers and Miners Group' of the Indian Engineers in 1946 the 'Bombay Group' of the Royal Indian Engineers . 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

• 1777 raised by Major Lawrence Nilson as Pioneer Lascars
• 1781 became Bombay Pioneers
• 1820 company of Sappers and Miners raised
• 1826 2nd company of Sappers and Miners raised
• 1829 Sappers and Miners renamed the Engineer Corps
• 1830 Bombay Pioneers absorbed by the Engineer Corps
• 1833 remaining part of Bengal Pioneers merged with Bengal Sappers and Miners
• 1840 renamed as the Bombay Sappers & Miners
• 1903 brought into the Indian Army and became 3rd Bombay Sappers & Miners
• 1921 became the 3rd Royal Bombay Sappers and Miners
• 1923 became the Royal Bombay Sappers and Miners
• 1923 became King George V's Own Bombay Sappers and Miners
• 1947 allocated to India on Partition

Regimental Histories

• Digest of the Services of the Bombay Sappers and Miners by G. H. W O'Sullivan 1895. Available at the British Library, UIN: BLL01014202268
• A Short History of the 17th and 22nd Field Companies, Third Sappers and Miners in Mesopotamia, 1914-1918. Available at the Imperial War Museums.
• History of the 20th (Field) Company, Royal Bombay Sappers and Miners Great War 1914-1918. Available at the Imperial War Museums. At least part, possibly the whole, is available online, refer below.
• A Brief History of the Royal Bombay Sappers and Miners. Published Kirkee 1924. Available at the Imperial War Museums.
  • This publication was extended, to include the period up to 1939, by Colonel LO Clark OBE in 1947.
• 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

Now available online, refer below.

External links

• Pioneer Regiments in the Indian Army from Pioneer(military) Wikipedia
• Indian Sappers 1740-1947 Royal Engineers Museum previous website, now archived. Details of the Bombay Engineers are included.
• Bombay Engineer Group Wikipedia
• Bombay Sappers indiapicks.com
• Watercolour by Charles James Lyall: 1903. Subadur Major Rup Singh. Bombay Sappers & Miners Brown Digital Repository, Brown University Library.
• Military Engineers in India in the 20th Century from Royal Engineers and Engineers of the British Empire and Commonwealth
• Aden 1901-04: Fighting in the Aden Hinterland. Delineating an international boundary by Harry Fecitt from Harry’s Sideshows.kaiserscross.com. The force included men from the 4th Company, Bombay Sappers and Miners.
• "A Close View of the Disaster at the Sittang Bridge" [Burma 1942] by Major E.R.B. Hudson of Malerkotla Field Company, an affiliated unit of the Royal Bombay Sappers and Miners. michiganwarstudiesreview.com

Historical books online

• Addiscombe, its heroes and men of note by Colonel H. M. Vibart 1894 Archive.org. Addiscombe was the East India Company Military Academy in England for the training of cadets for the Engineers, Artillery and Infantry.
• Lists of the officers of His Majesty's and the Hon. Company's troops serving under the Presidency of Bombay from Adjutant General's Office January 1st 1798 Engineer Corps muster roll in Malabar Google Books
• History of the Corps of Royal Engineers by Whitworth Porter 1889 Volume 1, Volume 2 Archive.org
• The Indian Sappers and Miners by E. W. C Sandes [Edward Warren Caulfeild] 1948. (726p). nzsappers.org.nz. Covers the period from the pioneers in 1759 to the prelude to the Second World War.
• "History of the 20th (Field) Company, Royal Bombay Sappers and Miners: Great War 1914-1918" by Major HWR Hamilton, RE, The Royal Engineers Journal

"Part I, France" page 537 [first article] Vol XL No. 4 December 1926.

"Part II Mesopotamia and part III, Palestine" pages 41-62, Vol XLI No. 1 March 1927. nzsappers.org.nz

• The Royal Bombay Sappers & Miners 1939 - 1947 Laurie and Cecilia Norman (eds.) 1999 Archive.org.
• The Early First World War Iraq Campaign, November 1914 - April 1916, and Captivity in Turkey by Brigadier KBS Crawford. A transcribed digitised account prepared by his son Nigel Crawford 2014. KBS Crawford was part of the Royal Engineers, with the 3rd Bombay Sappers and Miners. He was present at the fall of Kut, having been wounded in December 1915 when he was acting Major 17 Company and still on the sick list, and eventually arrived as a Prisoner of War at Afion Kara Hissar in Turkey. Forces War Records, generally a pay website, but this digital file is accessible for free.

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’.