Royal Engineers

In the summer of 1914, Moseley traveled to Australia to report his new results. War broke out and he hurried back to England. He enlisted as a second lieutenant in the Royal Engineers and was killed in action in Gallipoli in 1915, a victim of World War I. 

RB rifle bomber RESB Royal Engineers Standards... 

CWRE Chemical Warfare Royal Engineer s(Brit)... 

PRO, WO 32/5173, Engineers Code 14 (E) Formation of special poison gas companies, Royal Engineers (1915). The special gas companies were later to evolve into the Royal Engineers Special Brigade. 

As soon as the Australian meeting of the British Association was over, Moseley hastened home to offer his services to the government. He could work at home, he was told, in one of the war research laboratories, but he refused. He wanted active service at the front. So during the madness of those early war days he was granted a commission in the Royal Engineers. 

Fig. l.S A simple cotton respirator (left, reproduced with permission from the Royal Engineers Museum, Gillingham, Kent) and a black veil respirator (right, reproduced with permission from Porton Down). 

In June, 1936, when the War Office drew up a preliminary schedule of works to be completed at Tunnel Quarry, it was thought desirable that as much as possible of the work should be done either by Royal Engineer detachments or by directly employed civilian labour. Certain specific tasks were, however, to be done by private contractors. 

Tlie end of 1942 saw the standard-gauge railway system and all the major underground building work completed the power-house was operational and all ten storage districts were in use by the Ordnance Corps. Giving an overview of the previous year, the Royal Engineers Commander at Corsham wrote in the War Diary for January, 1943 ... 

Although it was intended from the start to incorporate an independent powerhouse in the Eastlays sub-depot, the Royal Engineers wavered in their resolve under pressure from the Treasury, and in February, 1939, Colonel Minnis admitted to the TTSC that we have not yet made up our minds whether to have a very small plant at Eastlays or to connect that Quarry with plant at Tunnel . The necessity to maintain a continuity of supply to the air-conditioning plant then under construction finally forced the decision. 

THE CORSHAM QUARRIES BEFORE THE COMING OF THE ROYAL ENGINEERS... 

As work progressed inferior faulty stone and cutting waste was left behind in large quantities, packed into the quarried spaces and around pillars to within a foot or two of the ceiling. Millions of tons of this waste stone had to be removed by the Royal Engineers before the quarries could be developed for ammunition storage. 

Barracks, Workshops Communications Following the decision not to proceed with the development of No. 1 District the space became available to the Royal Engineers, allowing No. 6 slope shaft, which enters the quarry at this point, to be fitted with rails and a winch for maintenance purposes. Old workings south of the main haulage were converted into workshops and stores and a number of machine tools installed to enable light repairs and alterations to be undertaken there. 

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