page_title: Soldier Artificer Company
section_title: Rebuilding and merger
hierarchical_section_title: Soldier Artificer Company / History / Rebuilding and merger
caption_attribution_description: Uniform of the Royal Military Artificers, 1795
context_page_description: The Soldier Artificer Company was a unit of the British Army raised in Gibraltar in 1772 to work on improving the fortifications there. 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. The company was an immediate success and was responsible for upgrading the British fortress's defences before the Great Siege of Gibraltar.
  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. They also excavated tunnels inside the Rock of Gibraltar to enable the defenders to fire down into the Spanish lines. After the siege, they assisted in rebuilding the civilian settlement at Gibraltar. The Soldier Artificers' numbers were increased several times to a peak of about 250 men organised in two companies. Their success was such that similar units were raised back in Britain to form the Corps of Royal Military Artificers, a predecessor to today's Royal Engineers.
context_section_description: By the end of the siege in February 1783, seven men of the Company had been killed and a further 23 had died from sickness, with an additional two men executed in May 1781 for looting. However, it had suffered no desertions during the siege, unlike several of the other British formations in the garrison. The great success of the Company's tunnelling work led to a large-scale programme of further tunnelling leading to 4,000 feet (1,200 m) of tunnels being excavated by 1790. Ince remained in charge of the work. 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. Their numbers were replenished with men transferred from regiments stationed at Gibraltar. 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.
  The structure of the Soldier Artificer Company underwent major reform in June 1786 when it was divided into two companies, in recognition of its increased size. It also underwent a major turnover in personnel, with 86 members being discharged – over a third of its numbers. 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. As experienced craftsmen were required, this meant that their average age skewed much higher than regular units. Due to military necessity, recruits had generally been admitted between the ages of 35–45 and occasionally as old as 50. 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. 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. Only three men were pulled from the water, two of whom died soon afterwards.
  The following year, the Master-General of the Ordnance, the Duke of Richmond, proposed to Prime Minister William Pitt that six companies of 100 soldier artificers should be raised in Britain along the lines of the Soldier Artificer Company.  Richmond was intent on a major programme of building and renovating fortifications, just as Green had been in Gibraltar 15 years earlier, and like Green he was dissatisfied with the existing system of hiring civilian labourers and artificers. Although the proposal was strongly opposed by those who argued that it was ridiculous to put labourers under military discipline, it was approved by Pitt and King George III and a warrant was issued in October 1787 authorising the creation of the Royal Military Artificers and Labourers. The Soldier Artificers in Gibraltar were asked if they wanted to change their existing scarlet uniforms for the new blue uniforms of their British-based counterparts. They agreed and from 1788 all the soldier artificers in the British Army wore the same uniforms.
  In June 1797 the Soldier Artificers were amalgamated with the Corps of Royal Military Artificers, a predecessor to today's Royal Engineers. By this time they comprised two companies with two sergeant-majors, five sergeants, five corporals, two drummers and 125 private artificers in each company (though the actual numbers on amalgamation were somewhat lower than this). Their discipline had deteriorated during peacetime and drunkenness was frequent, as were courts-martial for misconduct. Even so, the quality of their work remained high as long as they were kept under the close scrutiny of their officers and NCOs, who were particularly good foremen. Their incorporation into the corps brought its numbers up to a nominal total of 1,075 men of all ranks.
  A statue on Gibraltar's Main Street commemorates the Soldier Artificer Company. It bears the inscription: "Presented to the people of Gibraltar by the Corps of Royal E
caption: Uniform of the Royal Military Artificers, which the Soldier Artificer Company adopted in 1788
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