The 1st Sussex Engineers was a Volunteer unit of Britain's Royal Engineers raised in Eastbourne in 1890. It became the engineer component of the 44th (Home Counties) Division of the Territorial Force, but its units saw action with Regular Army formations on the Western Front, at Salonika and in Italy during the First World War, and in North Russia and Turkey after the war ended. During the Second World War, its units were in the Battle of France and at Alamein, in Sicily, on D Day and the subsequent campaign in North West Europe, including the Rhine crossing. Detached companies fought in Tunisia, Italy, and Burma, where one was involved in the decisive Battle of Kohima and the assault crossing of the Irrawaddy. The unit continued in the postwar Territorial Army until 1967.
Volunteer Force The enthusiasm for the Volunteer movement following an invasion scare in 1859 saw the creation of many Rifle, Artillery and Engineer Volunteer units composed of part-time soldiers eager to supplement the Regular British Army in time of need.Beckett.Spiers, pp. 163–168. However, it was not until 1890 that an Engineer Volunteer Corps (EVC) was raised in Sussex. Its instigator was George Frederick Chambers, a barrister from Eastbourne, with the support of the Commanding Royal Engineer (CRE) for the South-East District and against opposition from local dignitaries and the 2nd Sussex Artillery Volunteers, who feared competition for recruits in the town. Towards the end of 1889, Chambers called a meeting to get the minimum 60 volunteers required, obtaining 105 names including a complete fife and drum band. The requisition was sent to the War Office, and the 1st Sussex Engineer Volunteer Corps officially came into existence in Eastbourne on 24 May 1890. Initially the company headquarters (HQ) was at Eastbourne Redoubt, then from April 1891 at 38 Commercial Road, Eastbourne. It was attached for administrative purposes to the 1st Middlesex EVC. It formed two additional companies in 1892, B at Newhaven and C at Seaford. From 1892 it was attached to the 1st Hampshire Engineers EVC and then became an independent unit from May 1895.Westlake, p. 13.Lord & Watson, pp. 150–154.Monthly Army List, various dates.Morling, pp. 8–9.
Frederick Savage, headmaster of Seaford College, was commissioned as a captain in the 1st Sussex EVC in 1891 and formed a Cadet Corps at the school that year. In July 1895 he was promoted to major in command of the 1st Sussex EVC. Further cadet companies were formed at University and St Leonards Collegiate Schools, Hastings, in 1906 and 1907 respectively.Sussex Express, 19 February 2004. D Company of the 1st Sussex EVC was formed at Chalvington in 1896, but attempts the following year to raise three or four more companies were unsuccessful.
South Africa After Black Week in December 1899, the Volunteers were invited to send active service units to assist the Regulars in the Second Boer War. From 70 volunteers, the 1st Sussex Engineers selected its detachment of one officer, one sergeant and 25 other ranks to work with the Royal Engineers (RE).Morling, pp. 13–18.C.M. Watson, pp. 42–43. They were sworn in on 18 January 1900, underwent training at the RE depot at Chatham, Kent, and embarked at Southampton aboard the Tintagel Castle with similar sections from 11 other EVCs on 10 March. The ship arrived at Cape Town on 31 March where the first duty for the sappers was to unload balloons and gas cylinders for the RE Balloon Section. The Sussex Section was then given its assignment, which was to 23rd Field Company, RE, at Ladysmith. This entailed re-embarking and sailing to Durban, then proceeding by rail via Pietermaritzburg. The section spent three weeks repairing siege damage at Ladysmith, then with 23rd Fd Co it joined 4th Division's advance towards Newcastle. The main job for the sappers was to repair drifts (fords) so that the transport and artillery could cross the numerous rivers, but providing water supplies for the horses was also important. During the four-day Battle of Belfast the sappers were involved in digging trenches and gun positions. The force then drove the Boers out of Lydenburg into the Mauchsberg Mountains, where the sappers were employed to get the guns forward from ridge to ridge. After reaching Kruger Post, the column returned to Lydenburg, where the sappers built a six-span square timber bridge over the Crocodile River, sangars and water supplies.
The Sussex Section was now ordered to return to England, so it was marched back to Machadorp (the only unit on foot in a mounted column) and then went by train to Pretoria. There it assisted 9th Fd Co in laying a pipeline and carried out guards and patrols. After three weeks at Pretoria it was obvious that the Boers were not defeated, and the orders to return home were cancelled. The Sussex Section rejoined 23rd Fd Co at Middelburg, where it was chiefly engaged in manufacturing and erecting corrugated iron blockhouses, but also putting Middelburg Town Hall into a state of defence. Three Sussex sappers died of Enteric fever while at Middelburg, and another four were evacuated home with sickness before the end of the section's term of service.
At the end of March 1901 the first sections of Volunteer sappers were ordered to return home at the completion of their year's service. The Sussex section travelled by train to Durban, then by ship to Cape Town, where the survivors embarked on the St Andrew for Southampton. Before they left Cape Town, the second Sussex Section arrived on the Saxon from England, having been raised (from the enlarged 1st Sussex Engineers) in March. The Boers having adopted prolonged Guerrilla warfare, the second section saw less movement than the first, being chiefly engaged with 9th Fd Co at Naampoort on the blockhouse system. After the end of its year's service the second section embarked on the Roslin Castle at Cape Town on 29 May 1902 and reached Southampton on 18 June.Morling, p. 17.
The wave of patriotism at the time of the Boer War led to the formation of eight more companies for the 1st Sussex Engineers in 1901: E, F and G at Brighton, H and J at Eastbourne, K at Tonbridge in Kent, L and M at Hastings. Shortly afterwards the HQ moved to 40 Junction Road, Eastbourne, with another drill station at Seaford.Eastbourne at Drill Hall Project.Seaford at Drill Hall Project.
Territorial Force When the Volunteers were subsumed into the new Territorial Force (TF) under the Haldane Reforms of 1908,Beckett, pp. 247–253.Dunlop, Chapter 14.Spiers, Chapter 10. the 1st Sussex EVC provided the divisional engineers for the TF's Home Counties Division with the following organisation:London Gazette, 20 March 1908.Becke, Pt 2a, pp. 49–54.Morling, 'The Family Tree' (front endpapers).Morling, pp. 19, 249.Nalder, p. 598.Watson & Rinaldi, p. 11.
Home Counties Divisional Engineers HQ and 1st Home Counties Field Company (from E–J Companies) at Commercial Road, Eastbourne (Ordnance Yard, Eastbourne, from September 1910) 2nd Home Counties Field Company (from L & M Companies) at Tower Road West, St Leonards-on-Sea with drill stations at Bexhill-on-Sea and SeafordSt Leonards at Drill Hall Project.Sussex at Great War Centenary Drill Halls. Home Counties Divisional Telegraph Company (from E–J Companies) at 23 Gloucester Place, BrightonBrighton at Drill Hall Project. No 1 Section at Brighton No 2 (Surrey) Section No 3 (Kent) Section No 4 (Middlesex) Section
Nos 2–4 Sections were attached to and largely staffed by the three infantry brigades of the division.
The 1st Sussex also provided (from B & C Companies) the Sussex Fortress Royal Engineers, a single Works Company based at the Drill Hall, Queen's Hall, Broad Street, Seaford,Watson & Rinaldi, p. 13. while K Company at Tonbridge formed the basis for the Kent Fortress Royal Engineers. All three cadet corps continued to be affiliated to the Home Counties Divisional Engineers. The Telegraph Company was redesignated a Signals Company in 1911.
First World War Mobilisation The Home Counties Division was on its annual training on Salisbury Plain when mobilisation orders were received on 4 August 1914, and its units returned to their HQs. The Home Counties Divisional RE was embodied on 5 August 1914 under Lt-Col W.F. Cheesewright, who had been its Commander, RE, (CRE) since 12 July 1913. It went to its war station of Dover to work on defences, and then on 24 August to the Home Counties Division's concentration area around Canterbury.Morling, pp. 24–30.
Shortly after the outbreak of war, TF units were invited to volunteer for overseas service. Early in September battalions of the Home Counties Division began to relieve Regular units at Gibraltar, then in October the infantry and artillery of the whole division embarked for garrison service in India. Although it did later receive a number (44th), the Home Counties Division never operated as a formation during the war: its units remained scattered in colonial garrisons or were attached to Indian divisions. The Divisional RE went to France on 21 December 1914 as GHQ Troops for the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) on the Western Front and were later assigned as individual companies to Regular divisions.44 Division at Long, Long Trail.Morling, pp. 22–23.Watson & Rinaldi, p. 34.
Meanwhile, the formation of a reserve or 2nd Line unit was authorised for each 1st Line unit where 60 per cent or more of the men had volunteered for Overseas Service. The titles of these 2nd Line units would be the same as the original, but distinguished by a '2/' prefix. In this way duplicate battalions, brigades and divisions were created, mirroring those TF formations being sent overseas. The 2nd Home Counties Division was one of the first organised, as soon as the 1st Line had departed for India. Later 3rd Line units were formed to supply drafts to the 1st and 2nd Lines.Becke, Pt 2b, p. 6.Becke, Pt 2b, pp. 75–82.Morling, pp. 36–37.
1/1st Home Counties Field Company On 2 February 1915, the 1/1st Home Counties Fd Co was transferred from GHQ Troops at Racquenham to join 8th Division in the Lys sector. This division had been formed in the autumn of 1914 from Regular units returned from colonial garrisons, including two Regular RE companies. The decision had now been made to give each infantry division a third RE company, so that one could work with each of the brigades. 1/1st HC Field Co served with 8th Division on the Western Front throughout the rest of the war.Becke, Pt 1, pp. 89–95.8 Division at Long, Long Trail.Watson & Rinaldi, p. 28.Watson & Rinaldi, p. 65.
The company's first duties were to build breastworks rather than trenches in the waterlogged front line and to make extemporised mortars and Jam tin grenades. By the end of the month the division went into training for the planned Battle of Neuve Chapelle and the RE prepared depots of battle stores including trench bridges and ladders. 1/1st Home Counties Fd Co built a Pontoon bridge over the Lys to carry the extra traffic. The attack on 10–13 March advanced the line by about . The company then carried out preparations for further attacks at Fromelles and at Aubers Ridge, including provision of splinter-proof shelters, footbridges, mine galleries, gun emplacements, roads and approach trenches. The division's attack at Rouge Bancs was a costly failure.
8th Division was then moved north to a quieter sector. In September it prepared a limited attack at Bois-Grenier as a diversion from the main Battle of Loos. Once again 1/1st (HC) Fd Co built a pontoon bridge across the Lys to aid traffic flow. Although none of the enemy positions was held at the end of the day's fighting, the company wired and consolidated a new shorter defence line in No man's land.Boraston & Bax, pp. 46–53.
Somme