Soldier Artificer Company
It was the Army's first unit of military artificers and labourers – the existing Corps of Engineers was entirely made up of commissioned officers – and it replaced the traditional but unreliable practice of employing civilian craftsmen.
During the siege between 1779–83, the Soldier Artificer Company played a key role in repairing the damage caused to the fortifications by Spanish bombardments.
The Soldier Artificer Company was established by Lieutenant Colonel William Green to assist his programme of improvements to the fortifications of Gibraltar.
[4] A warrant was issued authorising the raising of a 68-man company consisting of one sergeant-adjutant, three sergeants, three corporals, one drummer and 60 privates working variously as stonecutters, masons, miners, lime-burners, carpenters, smiths, gardeners and wheel-makers.
[5] The Company soon proved to be a great improvement on the civilian workforce and a fresh warrant issued on 25 March 1774 authorised its expansion to 93 members, the additions comprising one extra sergeant and corporal and a further 23 private artificers.
It was decided to expand the Company to make up for the shortfall and this was authorised on 16 January 1776, bringing its numbers to 116 non-commissioned officers and men.
[10] The Soldier Artificers played a central role during the siege in successfully defending Gibraltar against the besieging Spanish and French armies.
The Governor, General George Eliott, subsequently praised in a despatch the role they had played in the sortie: they had "made wonderful exertions, and spread their fire with such amazing rapidity, that in half an hour, two mortar batteries of ten 13-inch mortars, and three batteries of six guns each, with all the lines of approach, communication and traverses, &c. were in flames and reduced to ashes.
The near-vertical cliff of the North Front of the Rock of Gibraltar greatly restricted the space in which the British cannon could be deployed.
In response, the Company's Sergeant-Major, Henry Ince, proposed to tunnel a gallery through the Rock to reach an outcrop called the Notch, so that a cannon could be mounted there to cover the entire North Front.
Its single worst loss of life during the siege occurred on 11 June 1782 when a Spanish shell hit the magazine of Princess Anne's Battery, causing a devastating explosion.
The magazine was completely destroyed and debris was ejected down the slope into the British lines below, causing heavy casualties in the vicinity.
By July the Company had lost 22 men through various causes, six of them killed by enemy action, with the rest falling victim to illnesses.
Under a fresh Royal Warrant issued on 31 August 1782, the company's numbers were increased to one sergeant-major, 10 sergeants, 10 corporals, 209 privates and four drummers.
[19] The Company also included two boys, Thomas Richmond and John Brand, dubbed "Shell and Shot" by their older comrades.
[15] The Soldier Artificers were also occupied with the rebuilding of the civilian settlement at Gibraltar, which had been reduced to ruins, and repairing and further strengthening the fortifications.
[24] They were uniquely privileged among the garrison's lower ranks; they were exempted from guard duty and their cleaning and cooking was done for them by soldiers of the line.
Apart from disciplinary problems with some Soldier Artificers, the main reason for the mass discharge was that many of them were simply too old and weak to be able to bear the rigours of their work.
[26] The older members were replaced with younger men aged 35 or under, primarily masons and bricklayers, and the overall number of Soldier Artificers was increased again.
[27] However, the journey of the second batch of new recruits – 58 men, 28 wives and 12 children – ended in disaster on 24 September 1786 when their ship, the Mercury, was shipwrecked on a sand bank off Dunkirk.
