On the recommendation of a committee appointed by the Master-General, the company at Plymouth with the detachment at Pendennis, was removed to Woolwich on the 18th August, 1833, and the company at Portsmouth was also transferred to head-quarters on the 29th of the same month. For nearly fifty years a company had been quartered at each of those ports, and their withdrawal was caused by some approaching alterations in the construction and distribution of the corps.
The expediency of reducing it, and remodelling the organization of the companies, had been under consideration for months; and it was believed that even after providing an adequate establishment of sappers and miners proportionate to the strength of the infantry, the numbers of the corps might be so diminished as to lessen its expense 5,000l. annually. Major-General Pilkington, the Inspector-General of Fortifications, laid down the rule that 100 sappers was a fair number to be attached to 4,000 infantry, subject, however, to augmentation in particular cases, according to the nature of the country in which operations might be carried on. On these data, Sir James Kempt ordered, on the 30th August, 1833, the companies of the corps to be compressed from seventeen into twelve, and the establishment to be reduced from 1,187 to 1,070 of all ranks.
Under the same order, the eight general service and three survey companies were composed of the following ranks and numbers:—
| Colour-sergeant. | Serg- eants. | Corp- orals. | 2nd corps. | Bugl. | Priv. | Total. | General Total. | |||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 80 | 91 for 11 Comps.= | 1,001 | |||
| The Corfu Company, paid by the Ionian Government, was unchanged in its establishment, and consisted of |  | 1 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 62 | 62 | 1,001 | |
| 1,063 | ||||||||||
| The Staff, including Brigade-major, Adjutant, Quartermaster, 2 Sergeant-majors, 1 Quartermaster-sergeant,[[280]] and 1 Bugle-major, amounted to |  | 7 | ||||||||
| Making of all ranks a total of | 1,070 | |||||||||
The distribution of the companies was fixed as follows:—
| Companies. | |
| Woolwich | 3 |
| Chatham | 1 |
| Survey | 3 |
| Gibraltar | 1 |
| Corfu | 1 |
| Bermuda | 1 |
| Halifax | 1 |
| Cape of Good Hope | ½ |
| Mauritius | ½ |
| Mauritius | ½ |
| Total | 12 |
The companies at Barbadoes and Quebec, and the second companies at Gibraltar and Bermuda, were recalled and incorporated with the newly-constructed companies, or reduced as the circumstances of the service required. The reduction was a progressive measure, and not finally effected till the 6th November, 1834.
A party of six rank and file was sent in January to Purfleet; and a like number continued for more than twenty years to be employed there in carrying on the current repairs to the departmental property with advantage to the public service.
In May, sergeant George Derbyshire and five rank and file were detached under Captain Henderson, of the engineers, on the trigonometrical survey of the west coast of England. The operations embraced the triangulation of the Lancashire and Cumberland coasts with the Isle of Man, and part of the coast of Scotland. The sergeant and one of the privates were employed as observers; the remainder assisted in the erection of objects for observation, stages, &c., and attended to the duties of the camp. The party quitted the mountains in October and rejoined their several companies.
In the same month, at the Cape of Good Hope, the detachment was augmented to half a company of forty-eight of all ranks. The necessity for this addition had been repeatedly represented by the commanding royal engineer at the station. Scarcely a bricklayer or mason could be found in the colony who had served an apprenticeship; and those who professed these trades were not only unskilful and indolent, but generally drunken and dissipated. It therefore became an object of much importance to increase the sappers at the Cape to a number sufficient to meet the exigencies of the service.