The Submarine Mining Service was established at Chatham, Kent, in 1871 as a branch of the British Army's Corps of Royal Engineers.

[2] The unit was initially equipped with former mortar boats of Crimean War vintage and 42-foot-long (13 m) former Royal Navy tugs and pinnaces, the latter of which could deploy mines but not recover them.

[5] The flag of the Submarine Mining Service was a blue ensign with the unit's badge of a hand rising from mural crown, grasping a thunderbolt.

[9] Overseas detachments of the Submarine Mining Service were established in the British colonies of Hong Kong, Ceylon and Singapore in 1878.

[12] The uniform had been designed by Lieutenant-General George Macdonogh as a young subaltern commanding the unit in 1891 and based on that worn by the contemporary Imperial Chinese Army.

[13] Six Chinese members of the Hong Kong company participated in the London celebrations of the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1897 and the same number in the 1902 Coronation of Edward VII and Alexandra.