[4][7][8] Lieutenant-General Sir Andrew Clarke, Inspector-General of Fortifications 1882–6, did not have enough Regular Royal Engineers (RE) to man the fixed minefields being installed to defend British ports.

In 1885 Clarke also sent Volunteers to the Red Sea port of Suakin to assist the Regular REs in railway construction in support of the British force engaged there.

The Tyne Submarine Miners consisted of three companies and a number of working boats, and was based at Clifford's Fort, North Shields.

[26] In the period of tension in late July 1914 before the outbreak of World War I, two 'special service detachments' of the TEE were mobilised, one taking its place in the Tyne Garrison, the other travelling to man defence lights at Portsmouth.

When war was formally declared on 4 August, the remainder of the unit mobilised, No 1 Company in the Tyne defences, Nos 2–4 at Portsmouth, based at Haslar Barracks on the Gosport side of the harbour.

No 1 Company also carried out a range of duties in the Tyne Garrison, such as installing electric generators for the hutted camps, signal stations and hospitals springing up in NE England.

When the Hospital Ship Rohilla ran aground of Whitby in October 1914, the TEE set up a searchlight on the clifftop to help rescue operations, while Captain H.E.

His task completed, he resigned from active life-boat service, knowing that the local men, led by Coxswain Smith, shared his faith in the powered boat.

"Captain HERBERT EDGAR BURTON, Royal Engineers (Tyne Submarine Miners) - For gallant service in the Tynemouth Lifeboat “Henry Vernon” on the occasion of the wreck of the steamship “Dunelm” at Blyth on 11 January 1913.

The lifeboat set out from the Tyne in atrocious weather under the command of Robert “Scraper” Smith, with Captain Burton on board as mechanical superintendent to tend the engine.

Brownlee, all of the crew of the Tynemouth lifeboat, Anthony Nixon, Robert Lisle Dawson, Ralph Macarthy, George Renner Armstrong, Adam Robertson and Emanuel Morgan Kelsey, Parchment Certificates.

The first Anti-Aircraft (AA) searchlight in the Tyne Garrison was set up the following month by the RE on the roof of the CWS Flour Mills at Dunston, and later handed over to the TEE.

Afterwards an electric searchlight was set up at Carville power station, Wallsend, to work with a 3-inch AA gun operated by the Royal Garrison Artillery.

Warning and blackout arrangements were inadequate, and L10 under Kapitanleutnant Hirsch caused considerable damage and casualties to industrial sites, including Palmer's.

Although these were used with some success for a few months, exposing a light drew heavy fire from the enemy, and the dangerous work earned the detachments the nickname of 'the suicide brigade'.

It carried out a variety of duties, ranging from installing electric lighting for hospitals, water pumps and laundry equipment, to erecting a printing works and building a trench locomotive.

[49] On 2 September the Germans attempted a mass Zeppelin attack on London, but only two airships reached the capital and one of these, SL 11, was held in the searchlight beams of 22 (Tyne) Company while it was shot down by Lt W. Leefe Robinson of 39 Squadron.

On 23 September another mass raid bombed Nottingham, but L32, endeavouring to avoid the London defences, was shot down by 2/Lt F. Sowrey of 39 Squadron cooperating with lights from Nos 9 and 22 Companies.

On 25 September 1916 the only air attack on Portsmouth during World War I occurred when Kapitänleutnant Mathy, this time commanding L31, hovered over the harbour in the searchlight beams, without actually dropping any bombs.

The mobile companies (including the aeroplane units) were mobilised at the Royal Army Medical Corps HQ at Queen Alexandra Military Hospital at Millbank in London before being despatched around the country.

When No 19 Section arrived in France in March 1917 it was stationed at a large ammunition dump at Zeneghem, but was given the additional task of setting up a dummy target.

Dummy rail tracks were laid and the decoy target was protected by 12 AA guns; on one occasion paraffin fires were lit to resemble a successful raid on the 'dump'.

During the winter of 1917–18 some sections were moved south from the Ypres Salient to the Somme area around Bapaume and Péronne, though enemy night activity in this sector was low.

[60] The Allied advances of the Hundred Days Offensive meant that to maintain an unbroken AA barrage along the whole front the searchlight sections were frequently shifted forwards through traffic-clogged roads, across damaged bridges, often under shell-fire.

[68][70][71] Because of the inconvenient location of Clifford's Fort, the unit also used a small drill hall at Rockcliffe Avenue, Whitley Bay, formerly the HQ of G Company of the disbanded Northern Cyclist Battalion, which the TEE shared with a squadron of the Northumberland Hussars.

[15][76][77] When the TA doubled in size following the Munich Crisis, the TEE formed a duplicate unit as a Light Anti-Aircraft (LAA) regiment of the Royal Artillery (RA).

On 9–10 June the regiment was withdrawn to St Malo, the detachments north of the River Seine destroying their equipment and escaping by sea to Cherbourg.

During the winter of 1939–40 detachments of the regiment were deployed to RAF stations and other vital points in North East England, which they defended during the Battle of Britain and The Blitz.

[95][96] Early in 1942 it moved to Lebanon under Ninth Army, and then to Egypt, where its batteries were dispersed defending VPs around the Nile Delta and Suez Canal zones.

In 1953 this was replaced by the TEE winged arrow crest embroidered in yellow on navy blue, and the unit probably also wore the RA grenade badge with 'Tyne' in place of 'UBIQUE'.