Each unit had been created under a separate Act of the colonial parliament, at the prompting of the Secretary of State for War, in London.

Submarine mine defence was only one of many activities the Royal Engineers were involved in within Bermuda, which particularly included building forts and infrastructure.

In 1900 the Royal Engineers Submarine Mining Companies also assumed responsibility for operating electric searchlights defending harbours.

During the First World War, in addition to fulfilling their roles as guardians of Bermuda and its important Imperial defence assets (such as the Royal Naval Dockyard), each of these units sent two contingents to the Western Front.

This had led to the creation of the two Bermudian units, and the size of the regular forces in Bermuda was steadily reduced from about 1870 onward.

Both were veterans of the First World War (Montgomery-Moore had served in the BVRC before taking a commission as a fighter pilot in the Royal Flying Corps).

As a corporal, he was attached to the signalling division at the Royal Naval Dockyard, before he was commissioned on the 28 May 1941, as a Second-Lieutenant into the Bermuda Militia Artillery on 20 December 1940, replacing Second-Lieutenant Francis J. Gosling, who had trained as a pilot at the Bermuda Flying School and was to depart for the United Kingdom in January for transfer to the Royal Air Force.

In addition to his role with the BVE, Montgomery-Moore also headed the Bermuda Flying School, which trained 80 local volunteers as pilots for the RAF and the Fleet Air Arm.

Whereas the BVRC and the BMA maintained skeleton command structures until they began recruiting again in 1951, the Bermuda Volunteer Engineers was officially disbanded.