Royal Engineers - Corps' Ensign

Corps' Ensign

The Royal Engineers, Ports Section, operated harbours and ports for the army and used mainly specialised vessels such as tugs and dredgers. Although the former Submarine Mining Service badge had been incorporated into their Ensign, which was designated 'Royal Engineers' after Submarine Mining was transferred to the Admiralty in 1904, the badge was made obsolete in 1909. However at the beginning of the 1914–1918 War, Inland Water Transport (IWT), previously part of the War Department Fleet, was transferred to the Royal Engineers and in 1915 the old Submarine Mining/Royal Engineers badge was reintroduced with pattern again sealed (L of C 17226).

IWT ran barges on rivers and canals up to the front line in France. Later their responsibilities were extended, and by 1916 they were also operating ships and train ferries across the Channel from a purpose built port at Richborough. IWT vessels were also in East Africa, and Mesopotamia (Iraq) where they moved supplies on the Tigris and Euphrates from Basra to Baghdad; by 1918 over 1600 vessels were there, mainly chartered or requisitioned. IWT was disbanded in 1924, but revived in 1939. During the 1939–1945 War IWT was active in North Africa, India, British Malaya, Burma, Iraq, Normandy, Belgium, and the Netherlands.

In November 1942 the Director of Transportation asked whether the flag issued to Royal Engineers small craft was correct. He seems to have been concerned with the form of the thunder-bolt. The original 1806 crest from which the badge was derived; "Out of a mural crown a dexter hand holding a thunderbolt all proper", had been changed in 1823 to "Out of a mural crown, argent, a dexter cubit arm the hand grasping a thunderbolt, winged and in flames, proper". Sir Gerald W. Wollaston, Inspector of Regimental Colours, wrote "thunderbolts are always subject to treatment", and in a later letter, "Wings and lightning should emanate from the body of the thunder-bolt of which they are a constituent part. In the badge the wings seem to float behind the hand. A thunder-bolt is a winged body (of no very definite formation perhaps) from which emanate flashes of lightning."

Ensigns with the revised badge were made in two sizes, 6' x 3' and 3' x 1.5', (183/ 91/ 46 cm). Small numbers were ordered in 1943 and early 1944, probably for training units, but in June orders were placed for 2,514 six feet ensigns and 1,982 three feet ensigns, for operational service.

After the war the army continued to have two separate water-borne transport organisations, Royal Engineers (Transport Services) operating ports and bulk movement in bases and on lines of communication, and Royal Army Service Corps responsible for intercommunication and distribution movements. In July 1965 the Royal Army Service Corps Fleet (civilian and military) and the Royal Engineers Fleet (Port Squadrons & Inland Water Transport) merged to form the Royal Corps of Transport Fleet.

The Royal Engineers ensign was later flown on boats of the RE Berlin Squadron and at the Royal Engineers Diving Training Wing at Gunwharf, Portsmouth. It presumably disappeared in 1996, when all Service diving moved to the Joint Service Defence Diving School on Hornsea Island, Portsmouth, it made a brief reappearance on one of the landing- craft beached at Arromanches during the 60th anniversary of D-Day celebrations and was flown by both 37 and 29 Armoured Engineer Squadrons on boats conducting anti-rocket patrols in the rivers and marshes of Southern Iraq in 2009.