The Engineer and Logistic Staff Corps is a part of the Royal Engineers in the British Army Reserve. It is intended to provide advisers on engineering and logistics to the British Army at a senior level. Following its work creating the NHS Nightingale Hospitals the Corps was described as 'probably the greatest military unit you've never heard of'. [1]
In 1859 there was considerable public interest in the creation of a Volunteer Force to assist the British Army, and the creation of volunteer corps were authorised in War Office circulars that year. [2] In response, a "Volunteer Engineering Staff Corps for the Arrangement of Transport of Troops and Stores, the Construction of defensive works and the destruction of other works in case of Invasion" was proposed in 1860 by Charles Manby, then honorary secretary of the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE). [3] He submitted his scheme to the War Office through the Marquess of Salisbury, as Lord Lieutenant of Middlesex. The then Secretary of State for War, Sidney Herbert, replied to say that he believed such a Corps would be a great advantage to the public service and that he would recommend Her Majesty to accept its formation as soon as the principal features had been agreed. [4]
Negotiations with the numerous independent railway companies took some time but in September 1864 the Inspector General of Volunteers, Colonel William McMurdo conveyed the approval of the Secretary of State, now Earl de Grey and Ripon, and went on to set out the objects and duties the Secretary of State would require of the Corps. On 7 November Manby submitted the names of 12 civil engineers and 9 general managers who would form the nucleus of the Corps. Once the Queen had accepted the services of the Corps on 4 January 1865 the first 21 officers were commissioned on 21 January 1865. [5]
The founding civil engineers comprised George Parker Bidder, John Hawkshaw, John Robinson McClean, John Fowler, Charles Hutton Gregory, Joseph Cubitt, Thomas Elliot Harrison, George Willoughby Hemans, George Robert Stephenson, Charles Blacker Vignoles, William Henry Barlow, Charles Manby and the general managers included James Joseph Allport. [5]
Bidder, a former ICE President, was designated Lieutenant Colonel Commandant, a post he would hold until 1878, Manby was Acting Adjutant (until 1884) and a week later McMurdo became Honorary Colonel (until 1894) - he presided over the initial Council meeting in April. [6] [7]
The objective of the Engineer and Railway Staff Corps was to ensure "the combined action among all the railways when the country is in danger" and tasked particularly with "the preparation, during peace, of schemes for drawing troops from given distant parts and for concentrating them within given areas in the shortest possible time". [8] [9] The original establishment of 21 officers was expanded to 110 in 1908 before being subsequently reduced to a strength of 60 officers. [9] The unit was always a volunteer unit, with members retaining their civilian jobs. [9] Until its reorganisation in 1943 its members were entitled to wear a uniform similar to that of the Royal Engineers. [9]
In recent times recruitment has diversified from road, rail and port specialists to cover almost all aspects of engineering. [9] It also began to advise the Royal Corps of Transport (in addition to the Royal Engineers) and was renamed the Engineer and Transport Staff Corps in 1984 to reflect this. Following the creation of the Royal Logistic Corps in 1993 the unit was renamed again to the Engineer and Logistic Staff Corps. [9] Until 2015 the unit was organisationally part of HQ Engineer in Chief (Army), constituted under the Reserve Forces Act 1996 and administered by the Ministry of Defence. [9]
In 2015 the Staff Corps marked its 150th anniversary [10] and celebratory events included a dinner at One Great George Street on 26 November at which the guest of honour was Anne, Princess Royal. [11]
In 2015 the Engineer and Logistic Staff Corps, together with the General Service Corps, were incorporated into the 77th Brigade. [3] Both the Staff Corps and the General Service Corps have been expanded and now provide not only a body of board level leaders in engineering, logistics, data & digital, finance & commerce but also a cohort of senior managers in communications, advertising, marketing and academia able to advise the army. [3] “The beauty of them is they think like a military person but have industrial experience; it’s a perfect blend,” said Brigadier Phil Prosser, commander of 101 Logistic Brigade in 2020, “they're always challenging us. They’re the backstagers. They’ll always be the unsung heroes but will never be catapulted into the limelight”. [1]
Members of the Engineer and Logistic Staff Corps hold their commissions as officers in the Royal Engineers (Volunteers) and are grouped into six directorates: engineering, infrastructure and systems; logistics; cyber and communications; corporate support and healthcare. [9]
The establishment strength of 120 officers, increased from 60 in 2021, consists of 25 Colonels, 50 Lieutenant Colonels and 45 Majors. [9] Membership is by invitation only and promotion generally follows seniority with some discretion to allow for individual officers' statuses in their profession and their level of participation in the corps. [9] [12] Officers who cease to be engaged in a relevant profession must offer to resign their commissions but may retain their appointment on the Commanding Officer's recommendation and with the approval of the Army Board of the Defence Council. [9] All officers of the corps are briefed to expect calls at any time to provide impartial and confidential advice to the British Armed Forces. [9]
Officers are regularly invited to relevant army conferences and equipment demonstrations to keep them up to date with current capabilities. [9] However, members are rarely seen in uniform and enjoy an independence not seen elsewhere in the military. “If I have to sit in front of a three-star General and explain that he or she may be wrong, I need to be able to do that without wearing a rank slide” said the Commanding Officer, Gary Sullivan, in 2020. [1]
The corps is administered by a Board of senior corps officers, chaired by the Commander (a Colonel as Commanding Officer) and assisted by the Chief of Staff (formerly Acting Adjutant), normally a Lieutenant Colonel who also acts as the Board’s secretary. [9] The Chief of Staff is always a retired army officer currently working in a relevant profession who acts as a point of contact for advice. [9] The current officers are mainly chief executives, directors and senior managers of 60 different engineering, transport and logistics organisations, which together employ 100,000 people. [9]
Recent Commanders include:
Colonel Keith White CBE 2008-2017
Colonel Richard Hunt CBE 2017-2019
Colonel Gary Sullivan OBE 2019-2023
The Corps’ current Honorary Colonel is Lt General (rtd) Ivan Jones CB, Commander Field Army 2019-2021
The corps has advised British forces in the following operations, amongst others:
In addition to peacetime roles in infrastructure, training, planning and logistics. [9]
In April 2020 the Corps was singled out at a Downing Street briefing by the chief of the defence staff, General Sir Nick Carter, who said of the military response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom “in all my more than 40 years of service this is the single greatest logistic challenge that I’ve come across. It has been a whole-force effort including not just regular military from all the three services but reservists as well; some 15% of the force has been reservists. It has involved defence civilians, defence contractors, scientists from Porton Down and something called the Engineer and Logistics Staff Corps, where we bring in people from industry who work inside the military in times of crisis and provide expert support for how we might link into the civilian community to bring forward skills and indeed industrial support.” [13]
The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the Sappers, is the engineering arm of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces and is headed by the Chief Royal Engineer. The Corps Headquarters and the Royal School of Military Engineering are in Chatham in Kent, England. The corps is divided into several regiments, barracked at various places in the United Kingdom and around the world.
During the American Civil War, the United States Army, the land force that fought to preserve the collective Union of the states, was often referred to as the Union Army, the Grand Army of the Republic, the Federal Army, or the Northern Army. It proved essential to the restoration and preservation of the United States as a working, viable republic.
The Royal Logistic Corps provides logistic support functions to the British Army. It is the largest Corps in the Army.
A military staff or general staff is a group of officers, enlisted and civilian staff who serve the commander of a division or other large military unit in their command and control role through planning, analysis, and information gathering, as well as by relaying, coordinating, and supervising the execution of their plans and orders, especially in case of multiple simultaneous and rapidly changing complex operations. They are organised into functional groups such as administration, logistics, operations, intelligence, training, etc. They provide multi-directional flow of information between a commanding officer, subordinate military units and other stakeholders. A centralised general staff results in tighter top-down control but requires larger staff at headquarters (HQ) and reduces accuracy of orientation of field operations, whereas a decentralised general staff results in enhanced situational focus, personal initiative, speed of localised action, OODA loop, and improved accuracy of orientation.
The Royal New Zealand Army Logistic Regiment, is the New Zealand Army's main military Logistics and combat service support (CSS) element. It is the largest regiment in the NZ Army.
Sir William Montagu Scott McMurdo was a British army officer who rose to the rank of general. He saw active service in India, helped to run a military railway in the Crimean War and then managed various groups of volunteers working with the army. He was eventually knighted.
The Corp of Sri Lanka Engineers (SLE) is a combat support arm of the Sri Lanka Army which provides military engineering. It is made up of ten regular regiments and one volunteer regiment. Headquartered at Panagoda Cantonment, it is headed by the Centre Commandant.
160 Transport Regiment Royal Logistic Corps (Volunteers), was a regiment of the Territorial Army in the United Kingdom.
The Royal Australian Corps of Transport (RACT) is an administrative corps within the Australian Army. The RACT is ranked tenth in seniority of the corps of the Australian Army, and is the most senior logistics corps. It was formed on 1 June 1973 as an amalgamation of the Royal Australian Army Service Corps (RAASC) and Royal Australian Engineers Transportation Service. The RACT is responsible for the operation of army surface transport assets, movement control, terminal and postal services, and Army aspects of air logistic support.
The New Year Honours 1968 were appointments in many of the Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. They were announced in supplements to the London Gazette of 29 December 1967 to celebrate the year passed and mark the beginning of 1968.
Charles Manby, FRS FRSA was Secretary of the Institution of Civil Engineers from November 1839 to 1856, and engineer of the first iron steamer to cross the English Channel. Fluent in French, he installed gas piping into Paris and advised on the construction of the Suez Canal.
The 1948 New Year Honours were appointments by many of the Commonwealth realms of King George VI to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. They were announced on 1 January 1948 for the British Empire and New Zealand to celebrate the past year and mark the beginning of 1948. By coincidence it coincided with the nationalization of the Big Four railways into what is now known as British Railways.
The 1947 King's Birthday Honours were appointments by many of the Dominions of King George VI to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. The appointments were made "on the occasion of the Celebration of His Majesty's Birthday." They were announced in supplements to the London Gazette of 6 June 1947.
The 1947 New Year Honours were appointments by many of the Commonwealth Realms of King George VI to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. They were published on 31 December 1946.
The King's Birthday Honours 1942 were appointments by King George VI to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by members of the British Empire. They were published on 5 June 1942 for the United Kingdom and Canada.
The 1944 New Year Honours were appointments by many of the Commonwealth realms of King George VI to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. They were announced on 31 December 1943.
The King's Birthday Honours 1943 were appointments by King George VI to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by people of the British Empire. They were published on 2 June 1943 for the United Kingdom and Canada.
The 1928 Birthday Honours were appointments by King George V to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of the British Empire. The appointments were made to celebrate the official birthday of The King, and were published in The London Gazette on 4 June 1928.
The 1881 Birthday Honours were appointments by Queen Victoria to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of the British Empire. The appointments were made to celebrate the official birthday of the Queen, and were published in The London Gazette on 24 May 1881.
Major-General George "Gus" Brian Sinclair was a British Army officer. After the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst Sinclair joined the Royal Engineers in 1948. He served in Korea during the aftermath of the Korean War and was quickly appointed adjutant of his regiment. Sinclair served as adjutant of the British garrison on Kiritimati for the Operation Grapple thermonuclear weapon tests. From 1969 he was Commander Royal Engineers Near East Land Forces, based at the Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia and was responsible for recovering buildings from a British training base abandoned in the aftermath of the 1969 Libyan coup d'état.