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PERIODS OF ENLISTMENT FOR THE CORPS OF ROYAL ENGINEERS

The following data is quoted from Grierson (1899):*

For Engineers except Army Postal Service, Telegraph and Railway Reserve of the Engineers and Submarine Miners Reserve of the Engineers:

  • "Seven years active and five years reserve, or three years active and nine years reserve at the option of the recruit; but in proportions settled by the War Office, with the [obligation of an additional year in active service if the soldier has been in garrison abroad (and eight years in the reserve)]. Drivers of the Engineers are enlisted for only three years active and nine years reserve."
    •

    For Army Postal Service, Telegraph and Railway Reserve of the Engineers:

  • "Three years active and three years reserve. These recruits may be transferred to the reserve immediately after enlistment, or may be discharged, if there is no employment for them in the postal service, or with any railway company."
    •

    For Submarine Miners Reserve of the Engineers:

  • "Three years active and three years reserve. These recruits are transferred to the reserve immediately after enlistment."
    •

    "The last two categories of recruits have to serve with the volunteers and are trained by them.

    Recruits wishing to join the engineers . . . must be able to read and write, and for the corps of engineers they must have learnt some trade useful in the service."

    * GRIERSON, J.M. Scarlet Into Khaki: The British Army on the Eve of the Boer War. Greenhill Books, London, 1988, p. 21-22.