FAMOUS BRITISH REGIMENTS.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 4, Issue 8, 29 January 1915, Page 3 (Supplement)

FAMOUS BRITISH REGIMENTS.

THE ROYAL ENGINEERS. Few battle honours or colours have corno the way of the Royal Engineers, Kitchener's old regiment, in which he obtained his commission as lieutenant when he first entered the Army in 1871. after three years as a cadet at Uk> Royal Military Academy at Woolwich—tha " shop," as it is affectionately termed by the officers who have been trained there.

The r<? a son why the Royal Engineers cannot boast of great captures and valiant charges is simply because it is their duty not so much to fight as it is to make it possible for the rest of the Army to fight. Their work comprises the building of fortresses, railways, and bridges, telegraph, balloon, and aeroplane duties, and survey work. For an Engineer, or "sapper'' as he is more popularly known, as an artisan and receives engineer pay in addition to regimental pay, regulated by his skill at hie trad?. The motto of the regiment. Übique," meaning " Everywhere," explains the multitudinous duties of the Royal Engineers. 'AVENGING GORDON. It was while serving with the En* gmeers that Kitchener laid tile foundation of that knowledge which has made him the great organizer and military strategist ho is to-day. And it is interesting to record that General Gordon. who defied the Mahdi's hosts at Khartoum for nearly a year, only to meet with a death which stirred the whole of Britain—a death, however, Kitchener avenged at Omdurman sixteen years later—also began his military career with the Royal Engineers. Some daring deeds have been performed by the Royal Engineers. In the Crimea, where no fewer than seven of them won the Victoria Cross, one of the Engineers, Corporal W. J. Lendrim, won the Cross three times, on one occasion by helping to extinguish burning sand-bags under a hot fire. And it was Corporal John Ross, of the Engineers (afterward, made sergeant), who. on the night of September Bth. crept alone right- up to the Redan, found the enemy had evacuated it. and thus enabled our troops to take possession of it. THE " MUDLARKS." Neither should one forget, ill referring to the gallant deeds of the Royal Engineers, the feat of Lieutenant o. I{. -\l. Chard, the officer in command at Koike's Drift, when he, with about 100 men. mostly of the 24th Regiment, successfully repulsed an attack of -1.000 Zulus, "the terrible conflict to the last remaining a haud-to-hand struggle j against fearful odds. During the Ashant-oe ar (lt ' I> '" t L'eutenant M. S. Bell won the Victoria Cross for urging on and encouraging an unarmed working party of I' antee labourers, who were exposed not only to the tiro of the enemy, but also to that of our own native troops in the rear, "to continue working under nt». During tlio Boer \\ av the u Mudlarks," as the Royal Engineers have been nicknamed, several times had build pontoon bridges under fire, on one occasion crossing the Tugela River in fifty minutes, while one of the most- gallant deeds of tho present war was that of Lieutenant Pottinger, who with his section was blowing up a bridge itnoer lire. Thev laid the charge, and the seetion retired. Lieutenant Pottinger and a sapper remaining behind to light the fuse. This they did. but apparently something went wrong with the detonator, and the charge did not explode. The sapper then fired ten rounds with his rifle at the charge without success. Lieutenant Pottinger then said "I'll tnako the thing go off." shook hands with the sapper. a"d went to the bridge. There bo put the muzzle of his revolver to tho charge and fired all six cartridges. The charge still dul not e* pi ode. and thev had to leave the bndg" standing, as they were driven back i>y tho Germans. If that charge had cone off Lieutenant Pottinger would have disappeared, and 110 one know thai l»otter than himself.