Anholt, an island of Denmark in possession of the British, had been attacked by the Danes in March, and the fortifications consequently were much damaged. No officer of the royal engineers being available for the duty of restoring the defences, corporal Alexander Borthwick of the royal military artificers, an experienced mechanic, was sent there in His Majesty’s ship ‘Helder,’ with two privates as overseers. They landed in September and were quartered in Fort Yorke under Lieutenant John Bezant, the ordnance storekeeper. The marines on the island were employed on the works, and each received for his labour 2s. 4d. a-day. They worked with attention and spirit. In six months all the authorized renewals and improvements were executed; and in May, a further sum of 3,700l. having been voted for completing the defences of the island, additional works were commenced to place the fortifications in a state to sustain a regular siege. In preparing to meet an apprehended attack on the island by the Danes, corporal Borthwick made various effective arrangements for the disposition and employment of the working parties, and gained the thanks of the Military Commandant, Major Torrens, royal marines. Shortly after, Admiral Martin being of opinion that the fortifications were sufficiently tenable to stand an attack, the works were suspended; and in August, 1812, Borthwick and his overseers returned to England. For his conduct and services at Anholt he was promoted to be sergeant; and a commission to a sub-lieutenancy was to have been conferred on him, but in the interim he became involved in some serious irregularities, which prevented the reward and ultimately ruined him.
So many detachments had been provided for the colonies and the war, that appeals for reinforcements or more extended aid could only occasionally be attended to. From the Peninsula and elsewhere, therefore, representations had been made of the necessity for increasing the corps, and augmenting the engineers' means for carrying on with efficiency the duties of the department. The proposals at length met with due consideration; and on the 28th May a warrant was issued for an improved organization of the corps, enlarging its establishment to an extent commensurate with the precautions which the disturbed state of Europe rendered advisable.
The warrant sanctioned an increase of 1,347 men, abolished the rank of company-sergeant-major, added to the number of the sub-lieutenants, and divided the corps into four battalions of eight companies, each company being constituted as follows:—
| Sub-Lieutenant | 1 |
| Sergeants | 5 |
| Corporals | 5 |
| Second-Corporals | 5 |
| Drummers | 3 |
| Carpenters | 15 |
| Masons | 10 |
| Bricklayers | 6 |
| Smiths | 4 |
| Wheelers | 2 |
| Collar-makers | 2 |
| Cooper | 1 |
| Miners[[171]] | 30 |
| Total | 89 |
The establishment of the corps was fixed as under:—
| Staff |  | Adjutants[[172]] Sergeant-majors Quartermaster-Sergeants Drum-major | 4 4 4 1 |
| Sub-Lieutenants | 32 | ||
| Sergeants | 160 | ||
| Corporals | 160 | ||
| Second-Corporals | 160 | ||
| Drummers | 96 | ||
| Privates | 2,240 | ||
| Total | 2,861 | ||
exclusive of the three companies of Maltese military artificers.
The annual expense of the corps, not including working pay and other fluctuating contingencies, amounted to 87,736l. 14s. 3¼d. At this period 5 sub-lieutenants, 1 sergeant-major, and 130 men were employed on the recruiting service.
In all practicable cases, general and field-officers were deprived of the command of companies, which now ceased to be stationary, but were removed by rotation of relief from one station to another, the same as the companies of the royal artillery. The employment of men on detached duties was also discouraged, and companies were composed of a convenient strength to enable them to move in bodies.
Upon the stationary condition of the corps a celebrated officer of the royal engineers has made the subjoined correct remarks:—[[173]] “From the close of the American war till the year 1811, all the companies of royal military artificers were kept permanently fixed at their respective stations, both at home and abroad, where they remained for life, in what may, for military men, be styled a state of vegetation; so that they were, at that period, a vast number of men who had actually grown grey in the corps, who had never entered a transport, nor made a single day’s march from the head-quarters of their company. To the men at Gibraltar and other foreign stations the service of the corps was thus rendered almost equivalent to transportation for life. Everywhere they intermixed with civilians; they married in a proportion unknown in any other corps; so much so, that the number of women and children belonging to one company was often equal to that of a battalion of the line.”[[174]]