Three non-commissioned officers with sergeant Winzer in charge, sailed for Ceylon on the 8th October in the ‘Sumatra’ from London. This little party of observers, surveyors and draftsmen, were asked for by Captain W. D. Gosset, the surveyor-general, who having for many years been the executive under the superintendent of the national surveys, knew the varied qualifications of the sappers and the value of military organization in conducting the duty “in a country chiefly wooded and excessively rough in many districts.” While he sought to obtain subordinates with the amplest qualifications for colonial survey duty, Captain Gosset took care to secure, as an equivalent for their employment in a hot climate, an income which has far exceeded any remuneration ever offered to a soldier. According to their merits and exertions he has the power to reward each with a daily pay ranging from 5s. to 15s., exclusive of imperial pay and other colonial allowances.
Four non-commissioned officers under the command of Lieutenant R. M. Smith embarked at Portsmouth in the ‘Gorgon’ on the 13th October for Greece to be employed, as may be directed by Mr. Newton the vice-consul at Mitylene, in making excavations in the buried city of Teos, now Boudroun, to discover monuments, statues, and other antiqua for the British Museum. The party was selected with reference to the nature of the work to be carried out. One was a draftsman and photographer; the others respectively a carpenter, a stonemason, and a blacksmith, all able and handy men, adapted by strength, experience and intelligence to any service. Two of them had been travellers prior to their enlistment, and understood Greek. To associate these sappers with an interesting mission their names are given below:—
Second-corporal William Jenkins.
Lance-corporal Benjamin L. Spackman.
” Patrick Nelles.
” Francis Nelles.
All but Spackman had been in the Crimea and received medals and clasps. Jenkins, a ponderous man with a shaggy beard, the true type of an Englishman, was well known throughout the army for his services at the siege; and his gallantry on more than one occasion, was acknowledged by the gift of a medal “for distinguished service in the field.”
On the 17th October—the second anniversary of opening the siege—the designation of the Royal Sappers and Miners was altered by Royal authority, probably as a compliment to the corps for its approved services before Sebastopol. The announcement was made in the ‘London Gazette’ as follows:—
“The Queen has been graciously pleased to direct, that the corps of royal sappers and miners shall henceforward be denominated the corps of royal engineers, and form one body with the existing corps of royal engineers.”[[212]]
Thus is removed that standing misnomer by which the sappers and their officers, virtually one body, were by some incomprehensible caprice in the now obsolete military economy of the ordnance, called by a plurality of titles. Separated by name from their officers, and thrown seemingly into a cold unfriendly shade, the want of a family patronymic—one title of identity in common—was keenly felt by the sappers. Sir Charles Pasley was the first to moot the question. His representations ran through a period of forty years. Many other officers, considering that no sacrifice of exclusiveness should stand in the way of improving the status of the corps, adopted his views; and with the generous assistance of Sir John Burgoyne and the ready acquiescence of Lord Panmure the change was effected—breaking up an anomaly which it is proudly hoped will interlink and cohere both officers and men.