Corps History - Part 12
Engineers in a Civic role (1820-1911)

The combination of the competitive selection process for commissions into the Royal Engineers, which demanded high pass marks in tests at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, and the excellence of the training provided by the Royal Engineer Establishment (later the Royal School of Military Engineering) produced men of high calibre who were capable of contributing to Victorian and Edwardian society in a capacity far beyond the scope of their military roles.

Besides the remarkable men of the Corps such as Gordon (1833-1885) and Kitchener (1850-1916), other Royal Engineer officers also held high office in the army, and in many fields of the civil service, where they made significant contributions in Ordnance Survey, prison reform, civil policing, civil works, railway safety, communications, sports and colonial governance. Many of these opportunities were brought about through the expansion and development of the British Empire in the nineteenth century.

Irrigation Works in India - 1820-60

Much of the infrastructure of India, still enjoyed today, was created by engineers of the three presidencies armies and the Royal Engineers.

Lieutenant (later General Sir) Arthur Thomas Cotton (1803-99), Madras Engineers, was responsible for the design and construction of the great irrigation works on the river Cauvery, which watered the rice corps of Tanjore and Trichinopoly districts in the late 1820's. In 1838 he designed and built sea defences for Vizagapatam. He masterminded the Godavery Delta project where 720,000 acres of land were irrigated and 500 miles of land to the port of Cocanada was made navigable in the 1840's. Such regard for his lasting legacy was shown when in 1983, the Indian Government erected a statue in his memory.

Other irrigation and canal projects included the Ganges Canal, where Colonel Sir Colin Scott-Moncrieff (1836-1916) acted as the Chief Engineer and made modifications to the original work done by Sir Proby Cautley, an artillery officer.

Scott-Moncrieff went on to become Under Secretary of State Public Works, Egypt where he restored the Nile barrage and irrigation works of Lower Egypt.

Other military engineering achievements and legacies in India

• The Great Survey of India.
• The construction of the Great Trunk Road which eventually ran from Calcutta to Peshawar.
• St George's Cathedral, Madras (1815) - designed by Colonel James Caldwell, Madras Engineers. The design was derived from a pattern book plan of St Martin's-in-the-field Church, London.
• Town Hall, Bombay (1820-35) - designed by Colonel Thomas Cowper, Bombay Engineers.
• St Paul's Cathedral, Calcutta (1857) - designed by Lieutenant Colonel William Forbes, Bengal Engineers.

(For further information on the work of the engineers in India see Indian Sappers)

Developing Canada - 1820-63

Both the Royal Engineers and the Royal Sapper and Miners made a significant contribution to the settlement of Canada.

In the late 1820's Lieutenant Colonel John By (1779-1836) Royal Engineers directed the construction of the Rideau Canal from Kingston on Lake Ontario to the Ottawa River at By Town (now Ottawa, Ontario). Over five and half years, with two specially raised companies (7th and 10th Companies) of Royal Sappers and Miners, local labours and contractors he built 18 miles of canal, 52 dams and 47 locks along a waterway of 123 miles at the cost of £800,000.

In the 1830's two companies of the Royal Staff Corps built a canal to by-pass the Long Sault Rapids on the St Lawrence river (1829-34).

In British Columbia 'The Columbia Detachment' Royal Engineers under the command of Colonel Richard Moody built the Cariboo Road through the Cariboo mountains. The work was tough involving a prodigious amount of blasting and building long sections supported on cribs. The unit was disbanded in 1863 on the completion of the project.

Colonel RC Moody, Royal Engineers Early in his career Richard Moody served as Governor of the Falkland Islands (1842-1848). But his fame (in British Columbia) really came as a result of a gold rush in Canada that occurred in the late 1850's. which brought over 25,000 American prospectors up from the USA. Moody and detachment of 25 engineers (Sappers) was despatched to Vancouver Island to stake British sovereignty in this remote part of the empire. They arrived, from England, on 25 November 1858. He is credited with surveying and constructing the first substantial roads in the area, as well as, siting what became the city of Victoria, Vancouver. Their base is now a suburbs of the city and is called Sapperton.

Boundary Commissions - 1832-1911

Although mapping by what became the Ordnance Survey was borne out of military necessity it was soon realised that accurate maps could be also used for civic purposes.

1839 - Canada-United States

1858 - Canada-United States (Captain (later General Sir) John Hawkins RE)

1856 and 1857 - Russo-Turkish (Lieutenant Colonel (later Sir) Edward Stanton)

1857 - Russo-Turkish (Colonel (later Field Marshall Sir) John Simmons)

1878 - The Bulgarian (Colonel RE Home)

1880 - Græco-Turkish (Major (later Major General Sir) John Ardagh RE)

1884 - Russo-Afghan (Captain (later Colonel Sir) Thomas Holdich RE)

1894 - India-Afghanistan (Captain (later Colonel Sir) Thomas Holdich RE)

1902 - Chile-Argentine (Colonel Sir Delme Radcliffe)

1911 - Peru-Bolivia (Major AJ Woodroffe RE)

Much of this work continues to this day.

Prison Reformers - 1837-80

In the 1830's philanthropists turned their attention to the care of the prison population with the view of rehabilitating them during their custody. In 1837 a commission that looked into the confining of prisoners recommended that prisoners should be housed in isolation.

A Prison Board was established with Captain (later Major General Sir) Joshua Jebb (1793-1863), Royal Engineers as Surveyor-General of Prisons. He set about revolutionizing the design of prisons by introducing one-man cells and built-in sanitary arrangements. The first prison built to this design was Pentonville it was followed by Parkhurst then Portland, Dartmoor, Chatham and Portsmouth. In 1844 Major Jebb was appointed Inspector General of Military Prisons to reform the military prison system.

Royal Engineers also became involved in the management and building of prisons overseas. In 1850 Captain (later Colonel Sir) Edmund Henderson (1821-1896), Royal Engineers along with 5 Non-Commissioned Officers from the Corps of Royal Sapper and Miners, were sent out to Western Australia to supervise and maintain the prisons. A year later Henderson requested that more officers and a company of Sappers and Miners be despatched to build additional prisons. Among those sent out was Lieutenant (later General Sir) Edmund Du Cane (1830-1903), who was to become the last of the sapper Director of Convict Prisons (1869-87).

In 1873 General Sir Edmund Du Cane, as Surveyor-General of Prisons in Britain recommended that local prisons should be transferred to central Government control. The scheme resulted in a considerable saving, and a uniformity in the treatment of prisoners throughout the country.

Railway Safety and Construction - 1840-98

After the introduction of railways into England in the 1830's it soon became evident that the Government required professional advice to enable them to judge the various schemes proposed to them. That professional advice was sought after from the 'scientific trained' officers of the Royal Engineers.

On 2 December 1840 the Board of Trade appointed General Sir Charles Pasley (1780-1861) as Inspector of Railways along with Sir Frederic Smith. Pasley held the appointment until 1844. Through Pasley's patronage much of the physical work of railway safety inspections was carried out by junior officers of the Royal Engineers.

Pasley is also credited with devising a semaphore code for use on the railways. It was developed from a semaphore code that he had devised for military purposes in the 1820's.

Major (later Sir) Henry Whatley Tyler (1827-1908), Royal Engineers was appointed Inspector of Railways in 1853 a position he held for 24 years. In 1866 he was sent to inspect the railway systems of France and Italy, with a view to the adoption of Brundisi for the Indian mail (then an important line of communication to the Empire in the East). On his recommendation the route was accepted with the consequence of a shorter transit time.

In India the Corps' responsibilities for railways was extended from safety to the construction of rail routes. Notably the Sind-Pishin line which was started in 1884 under the direction of the engineer Brigadier (later Major General Sir) James Browne (1839-96). It was an extraordinary engineering achievement - the line ran for 224 miles over desert and mountains, it was built under harsh climatic conditions in a politically difficult area.

The Sudan Desert Railway (576 miles) was built under the supervision of the Royal Engineers, mainly under the guidance of Lieutenant (later Colonel Sir) E Percy C Girouard (1867-1932), between January 1897 and December 1899. The railway was initially built in support of Kitchener's Dongola campaign (1896-8), but its lasting legacy was the provision of a rail link from Cairo to Khartoum that was used for commercial purposes (see Part 9). An essential adjunct to the railway was the telegraph, also built under Royal Engineers supervision.

The Great Exhibition - 1851

Lieutenant Colonel (later Major General Sir) William Reid, Royal Engineers was appointed Chairman of the Exhibition Executive Committee in 1850 to organise the Great Exhibition of 1851.

The Exhibition (Crystal Palace) was opened in Hyde Park by Queen Victoria on 1 May 1851, but was later moved to Sydenham, south London. It was housed in a vast iron and glass structure that covered an area of 19 acres; the central transept was 108 feet high. Two companies of the Royal Sappers and Miners helped in its construction, they were:

• 5th Company (Captain HC Owen RE)
• 22nd Company (Captain CJ Gibb RE)

A number of junior Royal Engineer officers, some of whom were to go on and have distinguished careers, were also involved, namely: Second Lieutenants EF Du Cane (prison reformer), W Crossman (Liberal Member of Parliament), and W Trevor (Victoria Cross winner).

South Kensington Museum and the Royal Albert Hall - 1854-71

The profits from the Great Exhibition allowed the purchase of land in Kensington, West London.

• Raglan Barracks, Devonport
• 1st Middlesex Engineers Volunteers Drill Hall, London
• Prince Consort Library, Aldershot

In 1864 he started his last great design - the Royal Albert Hall, London but was suddenly taken ill the following year and died in December 1865. The design and work on the Royal Albert Hall was continued by Colonel (later Major General) Henry Scott (1822-83), Royal Engineers. The building was completed in 1871.

Police Commissioners - 1869-1888

The Royal Engineers Colonel Edmund Henderson (1821-1896) was appointed Chief Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police in 1869. His appointment was made on his return to England from Western Australia , where he had been supervising and maintaining the prisons. As Commissioner he instigated the following improvements to the Metropolitan Police:

• Development of the Detective Department.
• Introduction of 'Fixed Points' - places where policemen can always be found.
• Registration and photography of criminals.
• Registration and control of London Hackney carriages.
• An increase in Police numbers from 8,887 in 1869 to 12,880 in 1884.

He also took it upon himself to improve the lot of the orphans police officers by the founding the Metropolitan & City Police Orphanage (1870), now the Metropolitan & City Police Orphans Fund .

A riot caused by a clash between the members of the London United Workmen's Committee and the Social Democratic Federation on Oxford Street in 1886 unfortunately forced his resignation.

Henderson's successor was Major General (later Lieutenant General) Sir Charles Warren (1840-1927), Royal Engineers, who had just returned from successfully commanding the Bechuanaland Expedition (1885) (see Part 9).

Sir Charles Warren's first test in office was dealing with a major riot, which came to be known as 'Bloody Sunday', this riot took place in Trafalgar Square on 13 November 1887 during which many were injuried and there was some alleged loss of life. All this led to a sustained media campaign against him, particularly from W T Stead of The Pall Mall Gazette. It was also during his tenure as Commissioner, that the Whitechapel section of London was plagued by the series of grisly still unsolved murders attributed to the infamous 'Jack the Ripper'.

The handling of these unfortunate incidences led to disagreements with the Home Office, and he resigned in November 1888.

Telegraph Services - 1870-1909

In 1870 the Government nationalised the private Telegraph companies and the new management fell to the General Post Office (GPO). Colonel Gossett, the Commanding Royal Engineer at Woolwich suggested that the Corps, who had first used telegraph in the Crimean war (1854-56), should assist the GPO in telegraphy work under similar conditions to those employed on the Ordnance Survey. The offer was accepted, and the 22nd Company (Captain (later Major General) CE Webber RE),was detailed for the work with the GPO. Soon after the 34th Company followed; they were employed erecting some of the main telegraph lines in Scotland and the Eastern Counties. This was the beginning of a working relationship between the Royal Engineers and the GPO which lasted until 1993 when the responsibilities of postal services was transferred to the Royal Logistics Corps.

Telegraph Battalion erecting field telegraph (airline) c 1870s
(Sketch: Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation)

In 1909 'K' Company (formally 2nd Division Telegraph Battalion) was transferred from England to Ireland, where it was employed on building the telegraph network throughout the country. Royal Engineers continued to develop telegraph systems throughout the British Empire, particularly in Africa.

• Egypt and Sudan - 1882-1899
• Bechuanaland - 1885
• Gold Coast (Ghana) - 1896

Sports - 1870's

Officers of the Royal Engineers contributed positively to the sporting life of the nation during the 1870's, particularly in the fields of football and rugby.

Football - FA Cup winners 1875

The Football Association (FA) was founded in 1863 and the Royal Engineers became one of the first club members to join (1869).

In 1871 the FA established the 'Challenge Cup' (now the FA Cup). The first competition for the cup run in the season 1871-72 was won by The Wanderers 1-0, a team formed by ex-public school and university players, and was played against the Royal Engineers at Kennington Oval.

The Corps entered the competition in subsequent years (1872-1890) and won the FA Cup on 16 March 1875 when they beat the Old Etonians 2-0 in a re-play.

The team consisted of officers (mainly stationed at Chatham) for sport at that time in the British Army was almost exclusively an officer occupation.

(For a fuller account of Sapper FA success see When the Sappers won the FA Cup)

The team captain for the years 1872-74, Major (later Sir) Francis A Marindin (1838-1900), Royal Engineers went on to become the President of the Football Association and served in that capacity for many years (1874-90). He retired from the Royal Engineers in 1879. The following year he took charge of the 1880 FA Cup final and those from 1884 to 1890, including a replay at Derby in 1886. In his last final, crowds invaded the pitch and soldiers had to clear the field. He was considered "one of the outstanding referees who really knows the rules". While serving he saw service in the Crimea and was a member of the Board of Trade Railway Inspectorate, an occupation he continued after he left the Corps. He became Senior Inspector of Railways in 1895. In 1899 he submitted a report on accidents on railway workers on which a new Act of Parliament concerning rail safety was based. He helped develop London's new electrical lighting system and was knighted in 1897.

Rugby Union - Sapper international caps

In 1871 Lieutenants CW Sherrard and CA Crompton, Royal Engineers became the first members of the British Army to be capped for England. The following year (1872) Lieutenants FT Maxwell and HW Renny Tailyour, Royal Engineers were both capped for Scotland. Renny Tailyour and Lieutenant WFH Stafford, capped for England in 1874, both had the distinction of having played in the 1875 FA Cup final when the Royal Engineers beat the Old Etonians.

The Colonial Governors - 1776-1914

The choice of a Royal Engineer officer as governor was often determined by the needs of the colony at the time of his appointment (e.g. major military or civil works project or boundary settlement). Below is a list of Royal Engineer officers who have held governors appointments.

History of the Corps of Royal Engineers Vol I, II. Porter W (Institution of Royal Engineers, Chatham, 1951)

History of the Corps of Royal Engineers Vol III. Watson C M (Institution of Royal Engineers, Chatham, 1954)

History of the Corps of Royal Engineers Vol IV. Baker Brown W (Institution of Royal Engineers, Chatham, 1952)

Follow the Sapper. Napier G (Institution of Royal Engineers, Chatham, 2005)

The History of Army Rugby. McLaren J (The Army RFU, Aldershot, 1986)

Links to further reading:

Biography - General Sir Charles Pasley (1780-1861)

Biography - Captain Francis Fowke (1823-1865)

Article - Royal Military Academy, Woolwich

Article - When the Sappers won the FA Cup