1860062 Sapper E. Brown, Royal Engineers

Figure 1. Lance Sergeant E. Brown, Aden, circa 1931.
(Image courtesy of The Sapper, August 1931)

This study was initiated after the author acquired the Captain A.E. Haynes Bronze Medal awarded to Sergeant Brown when he was a young Sapper undergoing recruit training at the School of Military Engineering following his enlistment in the Army in 1920. Researching Brown’s life and military service was a difficult task. The Haynes Medal provided his Army Number, first initial and surname, however just an initial and a fairly common name like Brown did not open many doors leading to information regarding his life. A normal source such as Ancestry.com was not helpful due to the scant search information available. Fortunately tracer cards were found on the Findmypast Family Records web site. These cards provided valuable information regarding his postings and promotions and were used as the core around which the remainder of the research was built. Two additional sources of information were the Royal Engineers Quarterly Lists and The Sapper magazine. One edition of The Sapper provided the photographs of Brown that are included in this narrative. Every effort has been made to make Sergeant Brown’s story as complete and as accurate as possible given the available resources. Where a source for specific information in the narrative is not indicated, the reader should assume that the information came from Brown’s tracer cards.

Brown enlisted in the Corps of Royal Engineers on 2 July 1920. His tracer cards indicate that he had previously served in the Royal Fusiliers and that he had been discharged from that regiment on 3 March 1919. This information is shown in Figure 2 below.

Figure 2. Tracer Card No. 1 for Sapper E. Brown, R.E.
(Image courtesy of Findmypast Family Records)

Figure 2 provides a good amount of information regarding Brown’s enlistment. It shows his Army Number in the Royal Engineers as 1860062. Under his R.E. Army number is the number 622530 with a line through it. This 6-digit number is assumed to have been his Regimental Number while serving in the Royal Fusiliers.[1] Thanks to two members of the Great War Forum on the internet, Brown’s date of birth was determined to be 15 October 1898. If he enlisted in the Royal Fusiliers at the age of 18, then his enlistment in that regiment would have been in 1916 and he may have seen service in the Great War of 1914-1918. In that case he would have been entitled to the British War Medal and Victory Medal for his war service.

Following the war, Brown enlisted as a Sapper in the Royal Engineers for a period of six years with the Colours and six years in the Army Reserve. The card also shows that he was discharged from the Army on 8 March 1942.

Following the certification of his enlistment, Brown was posted to “E” Company of the 1^st Reserve Battalion, Royal Engineers at Chatham, Kent. His service with “E” Company was brief. On 7 August 1920 he was posted to “D” Company in the battalion for his recruit training. It was while he was receiving this training the he was awarded the Haynes Medal for excellence in Field Fortifications. Upon completion of his training he was remustered as a Pioneer on 4 February 1921.

Brown was appointed an unpaid Acting Lance Corporal on 16 February 1921 and appears to have remained in the 1^st Reserve Battalion, perhaps as an instructor, because of his demonstrated skills in Field Fortifications. On 11 March 1921 he was posted to “B” Company and on 2 May 1921 he was appointed a paid Acting Lance Corporal. These rapid appointments following his recruit training were probably also the result of his previous service in the infantry prior to enlisting as a Sapper.

Lance Corporal Brown was posted to the 56^th Field Company, R.E. at Bulford Camp on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire on 9 October 1922. The 56^th Field Company formed part of the 3^rd Division when Brown joined it, the same division in which the company served during the Great War. The company had just been reformed at Bulford in September of 1922, so Brown was one of the first men to join the newly formed unit.

The R.E. field company, as it was organized in 1922, was much like the war-time field company. Its mission was to support the divisional units with expertise in field engineering to aid in offensive and defensive operations. While Brown was serving with the 56^th Field Company at Bulford the unit was primarily involved in training in support of exercises at the brigade and division level. The men in the company also went through a period of annual training which included musketry, field engineering, bridging and trade training for individual soldiers. Oddly Brown remained with the company for a very short time, only 5 months, so he may not have completed the annual cycle of training. On 14 March 1923 he was posted back to Chatham, this time with “G” Company of the Royal Engineers Depot Battalion.

No information was obtained during the research for this narrative to indicate what type of work Brown performed while he was with the Depot Battalion. His tracer card does indicate that on 27 July 1924 he was promoted to the rank of Corporal. He remained with the battalion until 1 January 1926 when he was posted to the 1^st Anti-Aircraft Searchlight Battalion, R.E. at Blackdown in Surrey. Anti-Aircraft Searchlight units of the Royal Engineers were just being organized about this time. Many junior non-commissioned officers and sappers served in these units during the early stages of their organization.

His stay at Blackdown also was a relatively short one. He only remained there until 12 November 1926 before being posted to Gibraltar. During his 11 months and 11 days with the 1^st Anti-Aircraft Searchlight Battalion it is hard to imagine how he became proficient with the operation and maintenance of a searchlight in such a short period of time. Presumably he was able to function as a member of a searchlight section and perhaps even act as the assistant section leader under the command of an experienced sergeant.

Figure 3. A Royal Engineers Anti-Aircraft Searchlight Section.
(Photograph from the author’s collection)

A typical searchlight of the period was mounted on a 4-wheel cart and was towed into position by horses or perhaps by a light truck. The carbon-arc searchlight shown in Figure 3 above was manned by a 7-man section consisting of a sergeant, a corporal or lance corporal and five sappers. Brown may have served in a section such as this.

When Corporal Brown arrived at Gibraltar he was posted to the 1^st Fortress Company, Royal Engineers. The role of a fortress company was to assist in the defence of ports and harbours that had significant military importance. This was accomplished by the use of mines and searchlights and by supporting the Royal Artillery garrison co-located with the fortress company. The officers of the company at the time of Brown’s arrival were:[2]

On 1 September 1927 Brown was promoted to Lance Sergeant. While serving with the 1^st Fortress Company he also was appointed a Qualified Instructor (Q.I.) in Fieldworks on 10 January 1929. His appointment was for the 1928-1929 training season. This might have been expected as he had been awarded the Haynes Medal for Field Fortifications during his recruit training and apparently he had expertise in this field.

Lance Sergeant Brown was posted to the 20^th Fortress Company in Aden on 30 December 1930. His duties were much the same as they had been in Gibraltar, although the climate and topography were much different. British Forces Aden was the name given to the British Armed Forces stationed in the Aden Protectorate during part of the 20th century. Their purpose was to preserve the security of the Protectorate from both internal threats and external aggression. The units in Aden at the time that Brown served there consisted of the following:[6]

When Brown arrived in Aden there was only one officer in the 20^th Fortress Company, Lieutenant Digby Scawen Blunt, R.E.[7]

Figure 5. Lieutenant Digby Scawen Blunt, R.E., c. 1930.
(Photograph courtesy of The Sapper, August 1931)

In April 1931 Captain T.A.N. Bent, R.E. arrived in Aden to command 20^th Fortress Company.[8] He replaced Lieutenant Blunt, who was posted to the U.K. By July 1931 Captain Bent was still the only officer in the company. No other officer was assigned to the company before Lance Sergeant Brown left Aden in March 1932. Brown had been promoted to the rank of Sergeant on 11 January 1932 before leaving the company.

Figure 6. British Headquarters Aden, circa 1930.
(Photograph courtesy of Wikiwand)

While with the 20^th Fortress Company Brown was actively engaged in sports, primarily soccer. Figure 6 shows his with Lieutenant Blunt and the company soccer team. Brown appears to have been the team’s assistant coach.

Figure 7. The 20^th Fortress Company Soccer Team, circa 1931.
(Photograph courtesy of The Sapper, August 1931)

On 23 March 1932 Sergeant Brown was posted to “B” Company of the Royal Engineers Training Battalion for what was to be a 5-year tour of duty in Chatham. He is mentioned in “Station News” of the May 1932 edition of The Sapper welcoming him to “B” Company. One might assume that he was posted to the battalion as an instructor in Fieldworks for new recruits.

When Brown arrived at Chatham Lieutenant Colonel William Cave-Browne, DSO, MC, R.E[9] was in command of the R.E. Training Battalion and Lieutenant Colonel W.H. Oxley, MC,[10] was Second-in-Command. Captain G.N. Russell, R.E. commanded “B” Company.

Figure 8. Major General William Cave-Browne, DSO, MC.
(Photograph courtesy of Generals.dk)

Figure 9. Major General William Hayes Oxley, CB, CBE, MC.
(Image courtesy of the Imperial War Museum)

By April 1934 both Cave-Browne and Oxley were still in their positions at the battalion level, but Captain Russell had been replaced as commander of “B” Company by Captain L.F. Hancock, R.E. By July 1934 Lieutenant Colonel Cave-Browne had been posted and Lieutenant Colonel Oxley took command of the battalion. His Second-in-Command was Major H.A. Baker, MC, R.E.[11] On 22 June 1935 Sergeant Brown was posted to Headquarters Wing of the R.E. Training Battalion coming under the command of Captain Basil Charles Davey, R.E.[12]

Figure 10. Major General Basil Charles Davey.
(Photograph courtesy of Wikipedia)

Sergeant Brown’s posting to Headquarters Wing lasted only seven months and on 15 January 1936 he was posted back to “B” Company.

Sergeant Brown was posted to the 33^rd Fortress Company in Cork, Ireland, a unit that was part of the South Irish Coast Defences. While with this unit he completed 18 years of service and became eligible to receive the Army Long Service and Good Conduct Medal.[13] He remained with the 33^rd Company until 11 November 1938 when he was posted back to Chatham to serve in the 4^th Fortress Company.

Brown left the 4^th Fortress Company on 25 September 1939 and joined the Royal Engineers Depot Battalion where he was assigned duties in the Engineer Stores Branch. On 4 October 1939 he moved to the Engineer Stores Base Depot at Chatham and then to “G” Depot Company on 22 December 1940. He appears to have remained with this unit during the early years of World War 2 and was discharged from the Army on 8 March 1942. No information concerning his World War 2 service was found during this research other than he might have remained at Chatham from 22 December 1940 to 8 March 1942.

Sergeant E. Brown’s total service with the Royal Engineers was reckoned as shown in the tables below. It does not include his prior service with the Royal Fusiliers.

Location	Period of Service
Chatham, Kent	2 July 1920 – 8 October 1922
Bulford, Wiltshire	9 October 1922 – 13 March 1923
Chatham, Kent	14 March 1923 – 31 December 1925
Blackdown, Surrey	1 January 1926 -11 November 1926
Gibraltar	12 November 1926 – 19 December 1930
Aden	20 December 1930 – 22 March 1932
Chatham, Kent	23 March 1932 – 5 January 1937
Cork, Ireland	6 January 1937 – 10 November 1938
Chatham, Kent	11 November 1938 – 8 March 1942

Location	Period of Service
Home	16 years, 3 months and 26 days
Abroad	5 years, 4 months and 11 days
Total Service:	21 years 8 months and 7 days

The following sections are presented in tabular form to summarize Sergeant Brown’s promotions, appointments and the medals that he was awarded during his time in the Army. They are provided to give the reader easy access to these aspects of his military career. __________________________________________________________________________

Date of Promotion or Appointment	Rank or Position
2 July 1920	Sapper, upon enlistment in the Royal Engineers
4 February 1921	Remustered as a Pioneer
16 February 1921	Appointed Acting Lance Corporal (Unpaid)
2 May 1921	Appointed Acting Lance Corporal (Paid)
27 July 1924	Promoted Corporal
1 September 1927	Promoted Lance Sergeant
11 January 1932	Promoted Sergeant

During his recruit training Brown was awarded the Haynes Medal for excellence in FIELDWORKS at the School of Military Engineering at Chatham. Brown’s medal is named to him in impressed upper case letters on the rim as follows:

Figure 11. Brown’s Haynes Medal, Obverse and Reverse.
(Photograph from the author’s collection)

The medal is solid bronze, 2 inches in diameter and 0.15 inch in thickness. It weighs three ounces. The obverse of the medal is a high-relief profile image of Captain Alfred Ernest Haynes, R.E. The reverse is a high-relief image of two Sappers standing on the end of an expedient bridge built across a narrow stream.

The Haynes Medal is a memorial to Captain Alfred Ernest Haynes, R.E. The memorial medal was originated in 1898. Captain Haynes, as a junior officer, was selected by Colonel Charles Warren to accompany him on the Palmer Search Expedition in 1882 and in the Bechuanaland Expedition of 1884-5. He was Assistant Instructor in Survey at the School of Military Engineering from 1889 to 1894, and in 1896, while taking the 43^rd Company to Mauritius, he with his company joined the Matabeleland Expedition. During this expedition, Haynes was killed in a successful attack on Makoni's Kraal in Rhodesia. A subscription, in which many R.E. officers joined, was raised by his family and friends to erect a memorial to him in Rochester Cathedral. A balance of the fund was offered to the Corps and was used to provide a bronze medal to a Sapper in each party of recruits going through the Fieldworks course at the School of Military Engineering. The medal was designed by Frank Bowcher. Bowcher’s name appears in small print (not visible in Figure 11) below the bust of Captain Haynes.

Unfortunately, because of his common surname and the lack of a given and middle name or initial, no information could be found regarding his marriage or personal information of his post-service life. This type of information would usually be found on census documents or in family trees on internet sites such as Ancestry.com. However, without more specific information regarding his name this has not been possible as of the completion of this research work. Information also could not be found regarding his prior service with the Royal Fusiliers. The author is continuing to search for more on Sergeant Brown, but the task will be difficult unless his service papers can be obtained from the Army Personnel Centre at Glasgow.

BAKER BROWN, W. The History of the Corps of Royal Engineers. Volume IV. The Institution of Royal Engineers, Chatham, Kent, 1952.

[1] British soldiers were identified by Regimental Number throughout the period of the Great War of 1914 to 1918 and into the early 1920s. In the early 1920s the War Office decided to create a numbering system, the Army Number, giving blocks of number sequentially to various corps and regiments.

[2] Royal Engineers Quarterly List, January 1927.

[3] Later, Lieutenant Colonel.

[4] Later, Lieutenant Colonel.

[5] In October 1929 Lieutenant Wise left the company and his replacement was Lieutenant H.T.L. Loftus-Tottenham, R.E. Wise was a member of the Institution of Electrical Engineers.

Figure 14. Lieutenant H.T.L. Loftus-Tottenham, R.E., c. 1928.

(Photograph courtesy of The Sapper, November 1928)

[6] British Forces Aden (Wikipedia).

[7] Royal Engineers Quarterly List, January 1931-October 1933, p. xxiii.

[8] Ibid.

[9] Later, Major General.

[10] Later, Major General, CB, CBE, MC.

[11] Later, Brigadier General, OBE, MC.

[12] Later, Major General, CB, CBE, and U.S. Legion of Merit (Commander).

[13] The whereabouts of this medal is not known.

Location

Date of Promotion or Appointment