A Short History of the Corps of Royal Engineers

The Institution of Royal Engineers, 2006

From the earliest times, man's ingenuity has made use of defences to protect him from his enemies. In addition to utilizing natural defences and obstacles, man also began to develop his own defences, This required practitioners of education and skill, not only to design and build them, but also to select the most advantageous locations for them. The word `engineer' is derived from the Latin `ingenarious' which originally meant a person skilled in the art of constructing defences for the protection of settlements or towns. The word was later applied to those who constructed works of public utility. The Military Engineer was thus the precursor of the Civil Engineer/ Throughout the history of the British army, its Military Engineers have never been short of men skilled both in the profession of arms and in the fields of military and civil engineering...