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Corps History - Part 2
The Corps, Ordnance and its Train (1370-1713)
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In the 1300's gunpowder was introduced into Europe
from China and with it came a radical innovation in warfare - the
cannon. Documentary evidence suggests that the English under Edward
III (1327-77) first used cannons in war against the Scots in 1327
and again against the French during the siege of Calais in 1346.
The cannon brought a complete re-appraisal of fortification design.
The arrowhead shaped bastion, introduced into Britain from Europe
in the 16th century, became widely accepted as the most effective
for defence. Methods by which to manage the new technology were
also needed. By 1370's it became necessary for the Royal household
to establish a department to administer the King's cannon, arsenals
and castles, as well as a growing armament industry springing up
in London.
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Medieval cannon |
Office of Ordnance - 1370's
The new department called the ‘Office of Ordnance’ had its
headquarters and main arsenal in the White Tower at the Tower of London.
We know that sometime between 1415-20 Nicholas Merbury, Henry V’s
Chief Engineer was made the first ‘Master of Ordnance’.
The Office of Ordnance held on its permanent establishment, engineers
and artillery officers. Their numbers were increased in time of war
when ‘Ordnance Trains’ were raised. These Trains consisting
of temporary staff recruited from local artisans, tradesmen and labourers,
all capable of assisting the engineers and gunners in their tasks.
The Trains were disbanded at the end of the war and their members
resumed their peace-time occupations. |
The Board of Ordnance Coat of Arms
granted
in 1803 and confirmed in 1823 |
In 1518 the Office of Ordnance was renamed the ‘Board
of Ordnance’ and remained as such until it was abolished on
25 May 1855 - 450 years after it had been established.
During its existence both the permanent and temporary staff members
were to all extents and purposes, the Board’s ‘private
army’ because it regulated their terms of service, pay and promotion,
and exercised strict control over them in peace as well as on active
service, where they remained directly responsible to the Board and
not to the military commander. Nevertheless it was under the Board,
whose fostering care of the engineers allowed them to develop into
the Corps of today. |
When the Board was formed it included:
- Master-General of the Ordnance (the title came
into being in 1604) who was responsible for overall management
of the Board, under him were:
- Lieutenant-General - who had control of the personnel viz., the officers and men of the Artillery, Engineers and Store Department.
- Surveyor-General - who had charge of the matériel,
and was responsible for munitions and other stores.
- Clerk of the Ordnance - who conducted the Board's correspondence and regulated its finances.
- Storekeeper
- Clerk of Deliveries
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English Civil War - 1642-49
During the English Civil War (1642-49) each of the protagonists maintained
their own Ordnance Trains. When the Parliamentarians formed the New
Model Army the Engineer contingent of their Train consisted of:
- Engineer-General - (Peter Manteau Van Dalem)
- Engineer Extraordinary - (Captain Hooper)
- Chief Engineer - (Eval Tercene)
- 2 x Engineers - (Master Lyon and Mr Tomlinson)
- Captain of Pioneers - (Captain Cheese)
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Developments after the Restoration - 1683-1714
In 1660 Charles II was restored to the throne of England. A Warrant was issued
in 1683 that clearly laid out the responsibilities of the Board for
the construction of military works. It also fixed for the first time
the establishment of engineers, their salaries and personal duties:
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- Principal Engineer (this title was rarely used with 'Chief Engineer'
or 'Engineer-General' being the preferred term) - £ 300 per annum
- Second Engineer - £ 250 per annum
- Third Engineer - £ 150 per annum
- 2 x Ordinary Engineers - £ 100 per annum each
This Warrant can be seen as the first stage in the process of welding the disjointed members of the Engineer Service into something approaching a compact corps.
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Instructions to our Principal Engineer
He ought to be well skilled in all parts of the mathematicks,
more particularly in Stereometry, Altimetry, and Geodesia, to
take Distances, Heights, Depths, Surveys of Land, Measure solid
bodies...to be well skilled in all manner of foundations...
to be prefect in Architecture, Civil and Military... to have
always by him the descriptions or models of all manner of Engines
useful in Fortifications or Sieges... to keep perfect draughts
of every fortifications, forts and fortresses of our Kingdom...
to visit all fortifications in our Kingdoms and to make his
report in writing of the condition he finds them in ...to endeavour
to provide for our service good and able Engineers, Conductors
and Work -Bases... in time of action...to take a careful view
of the situation ... to see where the attack or attacks are
most advantageously to be made...
(Extract from the 1683 Royal Warrant ) |
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| 'Trains' were assembled and deployed in support of English forces campaigning under William III (1689-1702) in Flanders and Ireland in the 1690's. |
Rank
During this period regimental rank was not granted to engineers,
they only held a military rank if they had independently purchased
or been granted a commission in the army. |
Crown Jewels
Second Engineer, Colonel Holcroft Blood was the son of Colonel
Thomas Blood who attempted to steal the Crown Jewels in 1671.
Coincidently the Keeper of the Crown Jewels at the time of
the incident was none other than the father of Ordinary Engineer,
Captain Talbot Edwardes. |
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At the time of the Treaty of Ryswick (1697) the Ordnance Establishment of Engineers stood as follows:
- Chief Engineer - Sir Martin Beckman - £ 300 per annum
- Second Engineer - Colonel Holcroft Blood - £ 250 per annum
- Third Engineer - Colonel Jacob Richards - £ 150 per annum
- 5 x Ordinary Engineers - Talbot Edwardes, Peter Carles, Thomas Phillips, John Bodt and Michael Richards -£ 100 per annum each
- Extraordinary Engineer - Colonel WW Romer - £ 365 per annum
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War of the Spanish Succession (1702-13)
During the war of the Spanish Succession (1702-13)
a Train was formed under the command of Colonel Holcroft Blood to
support the Duke of Marlborough's armies in the Lowlands. The Trains
of Marlborough’s campaign assumed an unprecedented size –
for example the Train for the siege of Lille (1709) consisted of
100 guns, 60 mortars of varying calibre, over 3,000 wagons and 15,000
horses, the whole taking up a road space of approximately 24 km.
Colonel John Armstrong was appointed Marlborough's Chief Engineer.
It was his expertise that lay behind the success of many of the
Duke's sieges, including his climatic triumph of forcing the French
'Lines of Non plus Ultra' (1711) and the siege of Bouchain (1711).
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Marlborough (seated) consulting a plan of
the Siege of Bouchain with his Chief Engineer, The Honourable
Colonel John Armstrong.
(Painting: Enoch Seeman)
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| In 1704 the British beseiged Gibraltar which they eventually
captured from the Spanish. The Engineer involved in the siege was
Captain Joseph Bennet who was later joined by Captain Talbot Edwardes.
Gibraltar was to later play an important part in the development of
the Corps. |
Author: SC Fenwick, FoREM
Sources:
- History of the Corps of Royal Engineers Vol I. Porter W (Institution of Royal Engineers, Chatham, 1951)
- A Short History. The Royal Engineers. Compiled by Maj DP Aston RE (Institution of Royal Engineers, Chatham, 1993)
- Follow the Sapper. Napier G (Institution of Royal Engineers, Chatham, 2005)
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Royal
Engineers Museum main site
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