The London Electrical Engineers was a Volunteer unit of the British Army's Royal Engineers founded in 1897. It pioneered the use of searchlights (S/Ls) for port defence before World War I and for anti-aircraft (AA) defence during the war. In the interwar period, it formed the two senior searchlight regiments of the Territorial Army, which defended Southern England during The Blitz. Detachments later served in the Battle of Crete and Siege of Tobruk.
Origin
Queen Victoria approved the formation of 'The Electrical Engineers, Royal Engineers (Volunteers)' on 27 April 1897.London Gazette 27 April 1897 Their role was to supplement the regular Royal Engineers (RE) in wartime by operating searchlights to defend major ports in conjunction with minefields controlled by Volunteer companies of Submarine Miners, RE. The headquarters of the new force was at 5 Victoria Street, Westminster, and initially there were four companies recruited in London and the Midlands. By 1908, there were seven 'Divisions' of electrical engineers around the great estuary ports of Britain, including the London Division, which was responsible for the Thames Estuary. The London Electrical Engineers established its HQ at 46 Regency Street, Victoria, in 1900.Keith Brigstock 'Royal Artillery Searchlights', presentation to Royal Artillery Historical Society at Larkhill, 17 January 2007.Osborne, p.p 132–3.Westlake, p. 16.
Second Boer War The commanding officer of The Electrical Engineers was Rookes Crompton (1845–1940), the electrical pioneer and founder of Crompton & Co, one of the first large-scale manufacturers of electrical equipment. In his earlier life, he had been an infantry officer in the Rifle Brigade and the 57th Foot before going onto the Reserve List in 1880,Who Was Who 1920–1940.Hart's Army List, 1890. but had spent much of his service in India designing military steam wagons. Early in the Second Boer War, Colonel Robert Baden-Powell improvised searchlights to deter night attacks during the Siege of Mafeking. Soon afterwards, Major Crompton led a detachment of the Electrical Engineers Volunteers to South Africa, where they operated electric Arc lamp searchlights of his own design, the first use of such equipment by the Royal Engineers on campaign.London Gazette 17 April 1900. The detachment served from April to October 1900 in the Transvaal and Orange Free State.Quarterly Army List Crompton was promoted to lieutenant-colonel,London Gazette 6 November 1900. Mentioned in DispatchesLondon Gazette 10 September 1901. and made a Companion of the BathLondon Gazette 27 September 1901. for his efforts and was later given the honorary rank of colonel.London Gazette, 17 December 1907.
Territorial Force
Under the Haldane Reforms, the Electrical Engineers RE were converted into Fortress Companies RE in the new Territorial Force. They were responsible, among other duties, for electrical installations in the defended ports. The large London Division was planned to split into six RE companies as follows:London Gazette 20 March 1908 London (Fortress) Royal Engineers 1st London Divisional Telegraph Company RE 2nd London Divisional Telegraph Company RE London Wireless Telegraph Company RE London Cable Telegraph Company RE London Ballon Telegraph Company RE However, the plan was changed over the next two years. Instead, the London Electrical Engineers retained its title and role, 1st London Divisional Telegraph Company, RE, (as well as the 1st and 2nd London Divisional Field Companies) was formed by the East London (Tower Hamlets) RE (V), while the 2nd London Divisional Telegraph Company (as well as 3rd and 4th London Field Companies) was formed by the 1st Middlesex RE (V).Lord & Watson, pp. 157, 168–9.London Gazette, 14 October 1910.
The London Division was therefore finally reorganised as follows: London Electrical Engineers London Wireless Telegraph Company RE London Cable Telegraph Company RE London Air-Line Telegraph Company RE London Balloon Company RE (disbanded 1913) The three telegraph companies formed London District Signals,Lord & Watson, p. 184. while the London Electrical Engineers (LEE) specialised on searchlights. Crompton and most of the other officers appointed to the LEE were Members or Associate Members of the Institution of Civil Engineers.London Gazette, 22 December 1908. Another was the pioneer aeronautical engineer Edward Teshmaker Busk, who was a lieutenant in the corps. Crompton retired in 1910,London Gazette 8 July 1910. but was appointed Honorary Colonel of the corps in 1911.London Gazette 23 June 1911.
World War I By the outbreak of World War I, in August 1914, the London Electrical Engineers had grown to six companies based at Regency Street.Monthly Army List.Watson & Rinaldi, pp. 13–4. Searchlight units were immediately deployed to the South Coast of England and the Thames Estuary to form light barriers against surface raiders. For example, No 2 Company London Electrical Engineers was positioned at Coalhouse Fort in East Tilbury.Smith, p. 21. By an agreement between the Admiralty and War Office on 3 September 1914, responsibility for UK air defence lay initially with the Royal Navy, which provided aircraft, quick-firing guns and searchlights to defend vulnerable points against the anticipated air raids. These acetylene searchlights were operated by civilian Special Constables.Morris, pp. 22–8.
Anti-Aircraft defence The first night raid was made by Zeppelin airships on 19/20 January 1915. Then, in April and May, regular raids began on the East Coast of England, reaching London on 31 May/1 June. Zeppelin raids continued during the summer and autumn of 1915, after which it was decided that the Royal Navy would try to deal with raiders approaching the British coastline, while the Army would be responsible for dealing with them over land. The transfer took effect between February and April 1916. Experience had shown the need for plentiful searchlights to guide both gunners and fighter pilots to their targets. The army established a 25-mile wide searchlight belt stretching from Northumberland to Sussex, with a double ring round London.Morris, pp. 30–59, 81–6, 178–9.
The TF began forming AA S/L companies in December 1915, mainly from the LEE and the Tyne Electrical Engineers (TEE). By July 1917, there were 42 AA Companies of the RE scattered around the country, all with the LEE and TEE as their parent units. These included the following LEE units:Short et al., p. 143.Watson & Rinaldi, p. 78. Nos 1–6 AA Companies, London Nos 11–12 AA Brigade Searchlight Companies Nos 20/21 and 24/26 Aeroplane Squadron Searchlight Companies No 40 AA Company, Dover No 53 AA Company, Newhaven (The LEE itself had been reduced to five companies by August 1917).Watson & Rinaldi, p. 85.
Changes were also needed in searchlight design and training, so a team was selected from the London Electrical Engineers to return to their Headquarters at 46 Regency Street and set up workshops, design and drawing offices to deal with the redesigns. This organisation became The Searchlight Experimental Establishment commanded by Captain P. Yorke, RE. (The TEE similarly took responsibility for the School of Electric Lighting at Gosport.) Technology and tactics developed to keep pace as the Germans replaced vulnerable airships with heavy bombers. New 90 cm and 120 cm electric searchlights and their sound locators were linked directly to the guns to provide early warning.Short et al..
In August 1918, a new establishment was implemented. The London and Tyne Electrical Engineers became the parent units for all coast defence and anti-aircraft Electric Light units and the depots that trained men for them.RE Fortress Companies at Long, Long Trail It was from these that nearly all RE AA companies and AASL companies were formed, serving on Home Defence, with the British Expeditionary Force in France and Flanders, and on the Italian Front.London Cable Signal Company at Great War Forum
Between 1915 and 1918, the RE formed 76 AA Searchlight Sections for overseas service. The LEE is known to have found 25 of these: Nos 2 (jointly with Regular RE), 3–5, 7, 9, 12, 14, 16, 18, 25, 29, 30, 31, 33, 35, 37, 39, 41, 43, 45 and 48, together with Nos 21, 23 and 24, which were formed in France from Nos 1-8 AAS sections. Others were formed by the Regular RE (No 1) and by the TEE. The parent units of a further 29 AAS sections are not known, but they probably consisted of mixed LEE, TEE and Medical Category B personnel. A fixed two-light section in France in 1917 comprised 20 men with three vehicles; a mobile three-light section in 1918 consisted of five vehicles and 28 men.Short et al., pp. 206–11.
Western Front In August 1915, a detachment of volunteers from the TEE (72 men) and LEE (39 men) proceeded to join the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in France. They were formed into 13 small detachments, each assigned to a Field Company of the RE to operate small oxy-acetylene searchlights to detect enemy raiding parties in No-Man's Land. 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'.Short et al., pp. 81–2.
In November 1915, a joint LEE/TEE company was formed for service in France, designated No 1 (London and Tyne) Electrical & Mechanical Company, RE. It assembled at the LEE's HQ in London, and landed at Le Havre on 15 December, where it was attached to General Headquarters (GHQ) of the BEF. 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. After the Battle of the Somme, it was decided to form an E & M Company for each of the Armies of the BEF and the London & Tyne Company was split to form 351 Company (Second Army) and 354 Company (Fifth Army). 354 Company was later responsible for the development of air-lift and belt water pumps to supply drinking water. During the German spring offensive of 1918, 351 and 354 E &M Companies were entrusted with destroying electrical installations and water supplies ahead of the advancing enemy. These then had to be replaced during the Hundred Days advance.Short et al., pp. 102–18.Watson & Rinaldi, pp. 54, 80.
Among the professionals who served with the London Electrical Engineers during the war were the electrical engineer Reginald Frankland-Payne Gallwey (who later succeeded as the 5th Baronet of that name)'Frankland-Payne-Gallwey Baronets', Burke's Peerage. and the chemist Theodore Acland. The remaining part-time civilian searchlight operators were also replaced. By the end of the war, there were 622 searchlights in use for Home Defence.
Interwar
This large anti-aircraft effort was quickly scaled down after the Armistice, but the Searchlight Experimental Establishment continued as civilian body, with several officers of the London Electrical Engineers still attached. In 1922, the London Electrical Engineers was split into the 10th and 11th Anti-Aircraft Battalions RE. These were renumbered in 1923 as the 26th and 27th (London Electrical Engineers) Battalion, RE, becoming the two senior searchlight units of the new Territorial Army (Numbers 1–25 were reserved for Regular Army units, but most were never used). 26 AA Battalion, based at the Duke of York's Headquarters in Chelsea, comprised Nos 301–3 AA Companies, and 27 AA Bn headquartered at Mitcham Lane, Streatham, had Nos 304–6 based at Rochester Row, Westminster. (The Regency Street premises were used by the former London District Signals, which had become Air Defence Signals.) Crompton remained Honorary Colonel of the 27th.Frederick, pp. 858–9, 863–5.Watson & Rinaldi, pp. 105, 107–8, 112–4.1 AA Division 1936–38 at British Military History