Excerpt from History of the Corps of Royal Engineers, Vol. 1
It seems somewhat strange that no history of the Corps of Royal Engineers should have been as yet presented to the public. For nearly two centuries, since the date when the officers of this service were first united into a compact body, their career has been intimately connected with the military history of the Empire, and even long before that time they had as individuals gained renown in the important functions which in those earlier days they fulfilled. In spite of this vast accumulation of faithful service no connected account exists, and it has been left to those who are interested in the subject to grope amidst a mass of mouldering records, to exhume here and there isolated facts bearing on the subject. Other regiments have long since found their biographers, the result of whose labours has been the formation of an admirable encyclop?dia of military history. The student looks, however, in vain amongst these for any narrative of the services of the engineers.
The cause of this hiatus may possibly be thus explained. It seems clear that the task should fall to the lot of one who has had intimate relations with the Corps, and whose experience in connection with it would enable him to treat the subject adequately; but such a man, whilst in the active exercise of his profession, has not sufficient time available for the lengthened and laborious research necessary for the undertaking. Hitherto, engineers have generally clung to the service until old age or infirmity has compelled them to seek repose in retirement. They have consequently been unwilling and, indeed, physically unable afterwards to attempt such a work.
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