Royal Corps of Signals

Also known as the Royal Signals or the Royal Signals Corps

A Royal Warrant for the creation of a Corps of Signals was signed by the Secretary of State for War, Winston Churchill, on 28 June 1920. Six weeks later, King George V conferred the title Royal Corps of Signals. Prior to the creation of a separate Corps, signallers were part of the Corps of Royal Engineers.

The Indian Signal Corps was also set up in 1920 with British officers and ranks from the Royal Corps of Signals working alongside Indian Signallers; between 1920 and 1940 one third of Royal Signals personnel were serving in India.

FIBIS resources

• FIBIS Gallery: Eric Lomax Collection. Eric Lomax served in the Royal Signals during the war. He was captured by the Japanese in Singapore and forced to work on the infamous Burma Railway. In the early part of the war, he was posted to the Northwest frontier region where many of these photographs were taken.

Regimental History

• The Royal Corps of Signals. A history of its antecedents and development, circa 1800-1955 by R. F. H. Nalder. Published at London by Royal Signals Institution, 1958.

External links

• Royal Corps of Signals Wikipedia
• Royal Signals Museum located at Blandford Camp, Blandford Forum, Dorset, England. Includes Research & archive services. The Museum is within an Army Camp, and photo ID is required. The Camp is not easily accessible by public transport. An overseas researcher commented that this museum was absolutely worth the visit but it would have been much cheaper for him had he rented a car at Heathrow.
• "Royal Corps of Signals" by Stuart Bates May 16, 2014. Includes illustrations of the identifying flash worn on the side of the uniform sun helmet. militarysunhelmets.com
• "The King's Shilling" by Neil Walker Part 2a - India c 1937 Part 2b - India (Part 1-Joining Up) He was a member of the Royal Signals. WW2People’s War bbc.co.uk.
• "Henry George "Hank" Baker: An Obituary: 23rd June 1918 – 15th January 2006" by Roger Croston The Tibet Journal Vol. 30/31, No. 4/1, Contributions to the study of Tibetan medicine (Winter 2005 & Spring 2006), pp. 193-196. jstor.org. Register and read online for free, see Miscellaneous tips. Henry Baker was a soldier in the Royal Corps of Signals who came to India in December 1938. He was posted to Bannu and then to the Ahmedzai Salient for six months operations in outposts such as Mir Ali, Damdil, Tal and Razmak. In 1941 he was posted to run the radio station at the British Mission in Lhasa and was required to trek across the Himalayas to get to Lhasa. After seven months in Lhasa he was transferred to Sikkim where he remained until November 1945. He was was one of the last European eyewitnesses of the old Tibet.
• "1941-1945 Eastern Travels", Parts 1-9 by Cecil John Callis, Royal Corps of Signals, in India and Ceylon. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9 WW2People’s War bbc.co.uk. The author trained as a mechanic, or Fitter (motor vehicle) . His job was to maintain and repair the unit’s lorries, cars, motorbikes and portable charging engines.
• "A Signaller's Story" by Alastair Stewart McGhee. WW2People’s War bbc.co.uk

Part I: Scotland to Burma, Part II: Driving to Meiktila, Central Burma and Life in the Jungle

Photograph Collection: Alastair Stewart McGhee from his time in North West India from 1946 to 1947. flickr.com. He was initially based at Risalpur, then at Gardai, Waziristan.

• Eric Lomax obituary (1919-2012) The Guardian 10 October 2012. He was in Singapore at the surrender in 1942 and became a POW working on the Burma-Siam railway. His memoir is The Railway Man, (available online, refer below), now also released as a film of the same name. Also see FIBIS resources above

Historical books online

• The Wire Archive A repository for all editions of The Wire, the Magazine of the Royal Corps of Signals, from 1920 to 2008. royalsignalsmuseum.co.uk
• From Semaphore to Satellite The memoirs of Major General David Horsfield, Royal Signals may be read online. He served in Burma in 1942 and was then in India 1942-1946.
• The Railway Man by Eric Lomax 2014 first published 1995. He became a POW at the fall of Singapore. Archive.org Books to Borrow Lending Library.