Royal Engineers

Men of the Corps of Royal Engineers created and maintained services essential to the rest of the British Army in every theatre of the Great War. During the Great War the Corps reached a strength of nearly 12,000 officers and 250,000 soldiers.  Royal Engineers were engaged in tunnelling, mining, field and siege works, forestry, road building, railway and bridge construction, water boring and maintaining water supplies, land draingage and coastal works, mapping and map printing, signalling (including wireless and carrier pigeons), anti-gas measures, weather forecasting, sound ranging, electrical and mechanical engineering and the operation of the army postal service bringing news from home to the troops.  The Royal Flying Corps was formed from the Royal Engineers Ballon Section in 1912 and the Royal Corps of Signals from the Royal Engineers Signal Companies in 1920.