The Lancashire (Fortress) Royal Engineers was a volunteer unit of Britain's Royal Engineers formed in 1884 to defend the Mersey Estuary. As well as serving in this role, it also provided specialist engineer units in both World Wars, losing many men in a shipping disaster during the Greek Campaign. Its descendants continued to serve in the Territorial Army until 1967.
Origin When Lt-Gen Sir Andrew Clarke, Inspector-General of Fortifications 1882–6, did not have enough Regular Royal Engineers (RE) to man the fixed mines being installed to defend British seaports, he utilised the Volunteer Engineers for this task. After successful trials the system was rolled out to ports around the country. In October 1884 the 1st Lancashire Engineer Volunteer Corps at Edge Hill, Liverpool formed K Company to cover the Mersey Estuary. In 1888 the submarine miners were constituted into a separate branch of the RE Volunteers, and K Company became the Mersey Division Submarine Miners with the first officers' commissions dated 17 March 1888. Based in Liverpool, it ranked 8th in the list of volunteer submarine mining divisions, moving up to 7th in 1891 when the Humber division was converted into Militia. By 1899 it consisted of three companies. In 1907 the War Office decided to hand all submarine mining duties over to Militia units and the Volunteer submarine miners were converted into electrical engineers to continue manning the electric searchlights of the harbour defences. The Liverpool unit was briefly retitled the Mersey Division Electrical Engineers.
Territorial Force
When the Volunteers were subsumed into the new Territorial Force (TF) under the Haldane Reforms in 1908, the former submarine miners were redesignated again, the Mersey Division becoming the Lancashire (Fortress) Royal Engineers, with Nos 1 and 2 Electric Lights Companies and No 3 Works Company at Tramway Road, Aigburth. The Tramway Road drill hall was shared with TF units of the West Lancashire Division's Royal Army Medical Corps and Army Service Corps.
World War I
Mobilisation On the outbreak of war in August 1914, the Lancashire Fortress Engineers mobilised and went to their war stations on 5 August. No 1 (EL) Company was employed on the Mersey defences, No 2 (EL) Company went to Ireland to assist on the defences of Lough Swilly and Queenstown, and No 3 (Works) Company went to Crosby where it worked alongside civilian labour and nearby training units to dig coastal earthworks and trenches to defend Liverpool. In the event, Britain's coast defences were hardly tested during the war, but the Lancashire Fortress Engineers provided units and personnel for other roles at home and overseas. On the outbreak of war, units of the Territorial Force were invited to volunteer for Overseas Service. On 15 August 1914, the War Office issued instructions to separate those men who had signed up for Home Service only, and form these into reserve units. On 31 August, the formation of a reserve or 2nd Line unit was authorised for each 1st Line unit where 60 per cent or more of the men had volunteered for Overseas Service. The titles of these 2nd Line units would be the same as the original, but distinguished by a '2/' prefix. Later, many of these were mobilised for overseas service in their own right.
1/3rd Lancashire Company After completing the Liverpool defences in December 1914, 1/3rd (Works) Company was sent to Malta, where TF units were relieving the regular garrison for active service elsewhere. Then in 1915 the company was sent on again to join the Gallipoli Campaign. It served at Cape Helles until September, when it was withdrawn to the offshore base on the island of Imbros where it was engaged in erecting workshops and sinking ships for breakwaters. After the Allied evacuation from Gallipoli the company went to Egypt, where it was designated the 3rd Lancashire Army Troops Company. It served with the Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF) as Line of Communication troops in April 1916, then as Corps troops on the Suez Canal defences. When the TF units of the RE were given numbers in February 1917, it became the 555th (Lancashire) Army Troops Company. In February 1917, the company joined the Palestine Campaign attached to the Desert Mounted Column, then, from May 1917 until early 1919, it was working on the Lines of Communications. During the final advance of the EEF in 1918, the company was in the vicinity of Ludd (Lod), engaged in quarrying, road repair and bridging Wadis.
2/3rd Lancashire Company In November 1916, the 2/3rd Fortress Company was assigned to 71st Division, a newly formed Home Service division assembling in Hampshire and Surrey, which it joined in December. The company was numbered the 549th (Lancashire) Field Company in February 1917. The following month the division moved to the East Coast and concentrated at Colchester, where it formed part of Southern Army of Home Forces and was responsible for defending the Essex coast from Mersea Island to Walton-on-the-Naze. Towards the end of 1917, the War Office decided to break up the Home Service divisions to provide reinforcements for other formations. This was carried out by February 1918 and in March the 549th Company was redesignated as an Army Troops Company. It embarked for France on 22 June to join the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) on the Western Front, disembarking at Le Havre. Primarily engaged in constructing dug-outs and protected machine-gun positions during the summer, it successively served under First and Fifth Army, with XVII Corps in September 1918 and finally Third Army by the time of the Armistice with Germany in November 1918. The commanding officer complained in October about the constant moves, pointing out that the unit had little transport with which to move its equipment. That month, the company was in the Cambrai area carrying out repairs. Even the Armistice did not end the company's work: through the winter it was still engaged in repairs, and erecting hutting for demobilisation camps near Doullens and then at Antwerp, where its own demobilisation began during the spring of 1919.
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