Malaya
11 Squadron
In 1787 the Corps of Royal Military Artificers was authorised and six service companies were raised for work on fortifying the home ports. The officers came from the newly named Corp of Royal Engineers. Six more companies were raised in 1793 for active service in Canada and the West Indies. One of these companies served in Nova Scotia with a detachment in the West Indies, and in 1806 was numbered 11th Field Company. It was based in Halifax whose coat of arms includes the tiny golden-crested kingfisher which was, in time, adopted as the Squadron emblem (known affectionately by the soldiers as the “budgie”) As a result of the increased importance of military fieldworks carried out by the Royal Military Artificers, they were renamed Royal Sappers and Miners in 1813. In 1854 11th Field Company took part in the Crimean campaign, remaining there for two years before moving to India in 1857. The previous year saw the Royal Sappers and Miners integrated with the officers of the Royal Engineers, henceforward becoming known as the Corps of Royal Engineers. The Company was involved in the later stages of the Indian Mutiny until it became a Fortress Company in India from 1858 onwards. It reverted to being called a Field Company again in 1887. Meanwhile the Company moved to Egypt in 1885 and were dispatched to the Sudan as part of the force sent to try and relieve General Gordon besieged by Mahdist dervishes in Khartoum. In 1899, 11th Field Company embarked for service in South Africa as part of 1st Division. Under the command of Lord Methuen they took part in the relief of Kimberley and then remained in Western Transvaal as railway troops for the next three years. (A troop Commander during this period was Lieutenant CB Thompson who later became Lord Thompson, Secretary of State for Air, and was killed in the airship R101 disaster in October 1930) Elements of 11th Field Company were involved in the siege of Mafeking before the Company returned to England in 1901 and was based at Shornecliffe. It was in 1914 that the Company was sent to France as part of 2nd Division and became involved in the infamous retreat from Mons when they marched 256 miles. On the subsequent advance they built pontoon and trestle bridges over the Rivers Marne and Aisne. That same year they acted as infantry during the first battle of Ypres. Still with 2nd Division, in 1928 the Company were to be found in Aldershot but reduced to 4 officers and 132 men and formed into two half companies each commanded by a Lieutenant. The unit MT consisted of one motor cycle, the remaining transport being horse drawn wagons and limbers. The sappers had also designed hand-drawn rool carts. The officers usually owned their own chargers. By 1932 the Company had been reduced further to cadre strength. In 1939, 11th Field Company was mobilised at Aldershot and sent to France as part of 2nd Division in the British Expeditionary Force.
From Major Steve Barton, USA Retired - As a participant in that exchange on the American side I suggest that the sentence should say "February 1979 was an exchange month, when B Company, 13 Engineer Battalion came across from the USA to take the Squadron’s place in Ripon, whilst the Legs Eleven had an enjoyable month in Monterey, California." I was a Second Lieutenant and Platoon Leader in B Company and had a thoroughly enjoyable, albeit cold and snowy (!), month in Ripon and environs. The 13th Engr Bn was part of the 7th Infantry Division at Fort Ord, California. Fort Ord is now closed, but beautiful Monterey is still next door. Ripon, California may well have been a place that 11 Squadron visited, but it is in the central valley 120 miles from the Army post and the California coast. Thanks for the memories and all the best,
-In 1980, 11 Field Squadron went on another Harrier exercise in Germany, a commando exercise in Norway and finally the budgie turned crow for five weeks as HMP Frankland was taken over duringPrison Officers strike. Luckily the Regiment got out on good behaviour, two days before Christmas.
410 Independent Plant Troop
This unit has been added at the request of Mick Ramsay, who tells me that the unit was absorbed into 54 Corps Support Sqn 1962
68 Squadron
This is the main page for the squadron or unit. More info will be added here as I get the time, but for now it's a "base" for establishing comms with other members of the same unit. You can post messages for other members of the same unit using the messages link above this blurb, and you can also search for other members of this unit. Once you find them, click on their name to send an email direct to them. Please note that this website doesn't "remember" your emails, they are sent direct from you to the recipient without sappers.co.uk getting in the way. That helps you get in touch quickly and it keeps everything simple and free. Have fun. Gordon
69 Squadron
This is the main page for the squadron or unit. More info will be added here as I get the time, but for now it's a "base" for establishing comms with other members of the same unit. You can post messages for other members of the same unit using the messages link above this blurb, and you can also search for other members of this unit. Once you find them, click on their name to send an email direct to them. Please note that this website doesn't "remember" your emails, they are sent direct from you to the recipient without sappers.co.uk getting in the way. That helps you get in touch quickly and it keeps everything simple and free. Have fun. Gordon
70 Squadron (QGE)
This is the main page for the squadron or unit. More info will be added here as I get the time, but for now it's a "base" for establishing comms with other members of the same unit. You can post messages for other members of the same unit using the messages link above this blurb, and you can also search for other members of this unit. Once you find them, click on their name to send an email direct to them. Please note that this website doesn't "remember" your emails, they are sent direct from you to the recipient without sappers.co.uk getting in the way. That helps you get in touch quickly and it keeps everything simple and free. Have fun. Gordon
74 Squadron
I received information about this unit today (April 2012) from Ernest Gascoyne -
74 Field Park Sqn attatched to 50 Gurkha Enginner Regt based at Sungei Besi Camp outside Kuala Lumpur
Feel free to tell me anything more you can about it. REgards, Gordon
CRE South Malaya
DCRE South
This is an excerpt from the personal story of a pad's brat! You can find the full story here - http://www.archhistory.co.uk/taca/rutledges.html
The flight to Singapore, in a RAF Viscount, took only a couple of hours, and we landed at the civilian airport at Paya Lebar. This time, the whole regiment had moved to Singapore and would be stationed in Gillman Barracks, where Dad joined 54 Corps Field Park Squadron. Gillman Barracks was quite near to the city centre, on the road to Pasir Panjang.
In Pasir Panjang, we lived almost next to the sea and went to the local park, which was directly on the seafront, nearly every day after school to swim. (If we weren't swimming here, we’d be up the pool in Gillman Barracks, and I think that I went swimming every single day while we lived in Singapore.) Our new amah was called Muna, but she soon left to have a baby. Her replacement was Ayah, who turned out to be the best amah we ever had: she really treated us like her family, even inviting us to visit her home and family in the kampong, where she fed us Malayan-style jelly.
Vehicle Battalion Wksps REME
Base Workshops REME/FARELF Base Workshops REME was located on the Ayer Rajah Road, Singapore. Its function was to maintain and repair a vast collection of military vehicles which were then supplied to units throughout the far east. The vehicle depot for storage of this mass of vehicles was located in Tebrau, Johore. One of the units claims to fame in the fifties was the creation of the Bedford 'Pig'. A makeshift APC which looked like a steel garden shed on wheels. During the period 1949-1952 Colonel Kennedy was OC of the workshops. Col Salt was OC troops, he replaced Col Winter. The RSM was WO1 Harvey (enough said). The accomodation was Rowcroft Lines which stood overlooking the Ayer Rajah Road and the W/Shops. Rowcroft Lines was shared with District W/Shops and the Training Unit. At the rear of Rowcroft Lines stood what is now known as the Kentridge. It is the historically significant area where the Malay Regiment stood aginst the Japanese Army in 1942. Thanks to K.B.Orrill and http://britains-smallwars.com/malaya/reg.html for this entry
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