Royal School of Military Engineering - History

History

The Peninsular War (1808–14) revealed deficiencies in the training and knowledge of officers and men in the conduct of siege operations and bridging. During this war low ranking Royal Engineers officers carried out large scale operations. They had under their command working parties of two or three battalions of infantry, two or three thousand men, who knew nothing in the art of seigeworks. Royal Engineers officers had to demonstrate the simplest tasks to the soldiers often while under enemy fire. Several officers were lost and could not be replaced and a better system of training for siege operations was required. On 23 April 1812 an establishment was authorised, by Royal Warrant, to teach "Sapping, Mining, and other Military Fieldwork's" to the junior officers of the Corps of Royal Engineers and the Corps of Royal Military Artificers, Sappers and Miners.

Captain Charles Pasley who had been pressing for such an establishment since 1809 was selected as the first Director with the rank of major. The location chosen was Chatham which was, at that time, a strongly fortified naval town. The town was surrounded by batteries, bastions and ditches designed to be defended by 7000 men and so provided excellent areas for training in siege operations. (Records show that there had been a military base on the high ground above Chatham built to defend Chatham Dockyard since at least 1708.) Charles Pasley received his orders to move from Plymouth on 2 May 1812 and ten days later he was in Chatham.

In 1815 Pasley recommended that the Royal Sappers and Miners Training Depot at Woolwich be closed, to concentrate all training at Chatham. But that was not achieved until 1850 when the training Depot was moved to Brompton Barracks, Chatham. The move was made possible by the completion of North Kent Railway, which facilitated a fast transport link into London. The Headquarters of the Royal Engineers, also based in Woolwich, was not moved to Chatham until 1857.

The first courses at the Royal Engineers Establishment were done on an all ranks basis with the greatest regard to economy. To reduce staff the NCOs and officers were responsible for instructing and examining the soldiers. If the men could not read or write they were taught to do so and those that could read and write were taught to draw and interpret simple plans. The Royal Engineers Establishment quickly became the centre of excellence for all fieldwork's and bridging. Pasley was keen to confirm his teaching and regular exercises were held as demonstrations or as experiments to improve the techniques and teaching of the Establishment. From 1833 bridging skills were demonstrated annually by the building of a pontoon bridge across the Medway which was proved by the infantry of the garrison and the cavalry from Maidstone. These demonstrations had become a popular spectacle for the local people by 1843, when 43,000 came to watch a field day laid on to test a method of assaulting earthworks for a report to the Inspector General of Fortifications. In 1869 the title of the Royal Engineers Establishment was changed to "The School of Military Engineering" (SME) as evidence of its status, not only as the font of engineer doctrine and training for the British Army, but also as the leading scientific military school in Europe.

Its range of courses at this time included instruction in:

• Field fortifications
• Siege works & mining
• Demolitions
• Fitting & Lathe work
• Bridging
• Stoking & management of steam boilers
• Engine driving
• Electric light in field operations
• Electricity & telegraphy
• Model making
• Woodworking machinery
• Photography & chemistry
• Ballooning
• Survey
• Submarine mining
• Railway work
• Lithography (printing)
• Estimating & building construction

At the start of World War I the Royal Engineer battalions based at Chatham were deployed to defend the local area. Immediately recruits started to arrive - in the first six weeks of the war 15,000 men arrived. A hundred recruits per day had been expected to arrive but they arrived at a rate of two hundred rising to a peak of nine hundred per day. The Depot coped so well with this influx that on 3 October 1914, the King and Queen paid a private visit to the Corps, 12,001 all ranks were on parade in uniform on the Great Lines.

The courses at Chatham had to change to produce soldiers at the rate required by the war. Training in the Construction, Survey and Electrical Schools was cut back to allow for increases in fieldwork's and military training. Recruit courses were cut from eight months to four months and a batch of thirty officers arrived every month for five months training. After the war, the SME returned to its peacetime training role. In 1920 officers started to go to Cambridge University for one year courses. This was limited to wartime officers who then also had to do one year at SME, but by 1926 all officers spent two years at Cambridge University, after their course at SME, and received a degree. Between the wars sports were an important part of life at SME.

The barracks had an open air swimming pool. New sports field were built on the Black Lion fields, and a new hockey ground was built to the north of the Great Lines. The enthusiasm for sports went so far that in 1921 three tennis courts were marked out on Brompton Barracks square and were used frequently.

In 1939 SME mobilised again and the Training Battalion left Chatham forming two training battalions at Ripon and Shorncliffe.

Young Officer training was cut short to allow the officers to be dispatched to units. No basic training was now done at Chatham since the officers were trained at the RE OCTU and the men were to be trained in the training battalions. Specialist, instructor and higher trade continued at Chatham but from June 1940 training was seriously interrupted by German efforts to destroy the dockyard. Approximately 100 bombs, and one Spitfire, fell on the SME damaging buildings including the Commandant's residence. One caused heavy casualties when it burst in the basement of a barrack block. Staff and students were also required to direct the building of defences in the dockyard and the surrounding area. It was difficult to continue training under these circumstances so it was decided to look for a new site for SME. In September 1940 the decision was taken to move to Ripon. Despite the disruptions caused by the move, only one month's training was lost. Trade training remained at Chatham throughout the war due to the difficulty of finding suitable workshops elsewhere. The school at Ripon was expanded to keep pace with the growing demands of the war. In 1940 an Experimental Tunnelling Section was formed and in 1941 Assault Engineer and Bomb Disposal Schools were formed. The schools ran a wide range of courses for all arms and the long courses were designed to be taken in sections so that students could attend the relevant parts.

After the war SME remained at Ripon while a decision was made about the future location of the school. Several sites with better training facilities were considered but the Treasury could not afford the cost of providing new quarters and SME returned to Chatham. The move back was completed in March 1950. The close relationship the SME had with the civilian population led to the Corps being granted the Freedom of Ripon before the departure of the SME in July 1949. The SME was also involved in the parades granting the Freedom of Gillingham in September 1953 and of Rochester in May 1954.

In 1950 trade training courses were six months long, and these were put to good use around the barracks. By 1953 they had built Burgoyne House for the Mess Secretary and Napier House for the Institution Secretary. In 1962 the School of Military Engineering celebrated its 150th birthday, and as a birthday present HM The Queen bestowed the Royal title on the School, becoming The Royal School of Military Engineering (RSME). This was announced by HRH The Duke of Edinburgh when he visited Chatham to lay the foundation stone for a new barracks for the RSME at Chattenden, to house Fieldwork's, Signal and Tactics Schools and to provide accommodation for Plant, Roads and Airfields School.

In 1993 Battlefield Engineer Wing moved from Chatham to Minley, and became RSME (Minley). In 1997 they became Combat Engineer School. In April 1998 the Defence Explosive Ordnance Disposal School came under the command of the RSME. The Corps Museum in Chatham is the ideal place to delve into the rich history of the Royal Engineers.