The Bengal Engineer Group (BEG) (informally the Bengal Sappers or Bengal Engineers) is a

military engineering Military engineering is loosely defined as the art, science, and practice of designing and building military works and maintaining lines of military transport and military communications. Military engineers are also responsible for logistics ...

regiment A regiment is a military unit. Its role and size varies markedly, depending on the country, service and/or a specialisation. In Medieval Europe, the term "regiment" denoted any large body of front-line soldiers, recruited or conscripted ...

in the Corps of Engineers of the

Indian Army The Indian Army is the land-based branch and the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Army, and its professional head is the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), who is a four ...

. The unit was originally part of the Bengal Army of the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Sout ...

Bengal Presidency The Bengal Presidency, officially the Presidency of Fort William and later Bengal Province, was a subdivision of the British Empire in India. At the height of its territorial jurisdiction, it covered large parts of what is now South Asia and ...

, and subsequently part of the British Indian Army during the

British Raj The British Raj (; from Hindi language, Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British The Crown, Crown on the Indian subcontinent; * * it is also called Crown rule in India, * * * * or Direct rule in India, * Q ...

. The Bengal Sappers are stationed at Roorkee Cantonment in

Roorkee Roorkee (Rūṛkī) is a city and a municipal corporation in the Haridwar district of the state of Uttarakhand, India. It is from Haridwar city, the district headquarter. It is spread over a flat terrain under Sivalik Hills of Himalayas. The ...

Uttarakhand Uttarakhand ( , or ; , ), also known as Uttaranchal ( ; List of renamed places in India, the official name until 2007), is a States and union territories of India, state in the North India, northern part of India. It is often referred to as t ...

. The Bengal Sappers are one of the few remaining regiments of the erstwhile Bengal Presidency Army and survived the Rebellion of 1857 due to their "sterling work" in the recapture by the East India Company of

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders wi ...

and other operations in 1857–58. The troops of the Bengal Sappers have been a familiar sight for over 200 years in the battlefields of

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

with their never-say-die attitude of ''Chak De'' and brandishing their favourite tool the ''hamber''.Bengal Sappers’ saga of valour
'' The Tribune'', 24 November 2008.Bengal Sappers: 'Sarvatra' for Two Hundred Years
''Sainik Samachar'', Vol. 50, No. 21, 1–15 November 2003, 10-24 Kartika, 1925 (Saka),

Ministry of Defence {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in state ...

, Govt. of India.Corps of Engineers, Indian Army
''bharat-rakshak.com''. Over the years the Bengal Sappers have won many

battle A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force ...

and theatre honours, 11

Victoria Cross The Victoria Cross (VC) is the highest and most prestigious award of the British honours system. It is awarded for valour "in the presence of the enemy" to members of the British Armed Forces and may be awarded posthumously. It was previously ...

, 116 Indian Order of Merit, 17

Shaurya Chakra The Shaurya Chakra is an Indian military decoration awarded for valour, courageous action or self-sacrifice while not engaged in direct action with the enemy. It may be awarded to civilians as well as military personnel, sometimes posthumousl ...

, 93

Sena Medal The Sena Medal is awarded to members of the Indian army, of all ranks, "for such individual acts of exceptional devotion to duty or courage as have special significance for the Army." Awards may be made posthumously and a bar is authorized for s ...

s and 11

Arjun Award The Arjuna Award, officially known as Arjuna Awards for Outstanding Performance in Sports and Games, is the second-highest sporting honour of India, the highest being the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award. The award is named after Arjuna, on ...

s, the highest number of won by any single organization in the country. Lt Gen

Joginder Singh Dhillon Lieutenant General Joginder Singh Dhillon (19 November 1914–20 November 2003) was an officer in the British Indian Army and then the Indian Army. Dhillon Born in Jat Sikh Family. He was the first Army Officer to be awarded the Padma Bhushan, ...

was commissioned into Bengal Engineer Group in 1936 and commanded the First

Republic Day Parade The Delhi Republic Day parade is the largest and most important of the parades marking the Republic Day celebrations in India. The parade takes place every year on 26 January at Rajpath, New Delhi. It is the main attraction of India's Republic ...

New Delhi New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the NCT Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati B ...

, becoming the first army officer to be awarded the Padma Bhushan in November 1965. Among the three Sapper units of the Indian Army, the Bengal Sappers was the first engineer group to receive the 'President Colours' in recognition of its service to the nation, on 12 January 1989, by

Ramaswamy Venkataraman Ramaswamy Venkataraman (, 4 December 191027 January 2009) was an Indian lawyer, Indian independence activist and politician who served as a Union Minister and as the eighth president of India. Venkataraman was born in Rajamadam village in Tan ...

, the eight

President of India The president of India ( IAST: ) is the head of state of the Republic of India. The president is the nominal head of the executive, the first citizen of the country, as well as the commander-in-chief of the Indian Armed Forces. Droupadi Mur ...

, who presented the Regimental Colours to Bengal Engineer Group at Roorkee. Besides service on the battlefield, the Bengal Engineers also rendered valuable peacetime contributions. The military engineer Lt. James Agg designed St John's Church, Calcutta. It was based on

James Gibbs James Gibbs (23 December 1682 – 5 August 1754) was one of Britain's most influential architects. Born in Aberdeen, he trained as an architect in Rome, and practised mainly in England. He is an important figure whose work spanned the transi ...

's St Martin-in-the-Fields in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

and was

consecrated Consecration is the solemn dedication to a special purpose or service. The word ''consecration'' literally means "association with the sacred". Persons, places, or things can be consecrated, and the term is used in various ways by different grou ...

in 1787. St John's was the Anglican

cathedral A cathedral is a church that contains the ''cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denominatio ...

of the city – capital of the Bengal Presidency – until

St Paul's Cathedral St Paul's Cathedral is an Anglicanism, Anglican cathedral in London and is the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London. It is on Ludgate Hill at the highest point of the City of London ...

, begun 1839, was completed in 1847. St Paul's was also designed by a Bengal Engineer,

William Nairn Forbes Major-General William Nairn Forbes (3 April 1796 – 1 May 1855) was a British architect and military engineer in the Bengal Army. He was responsible for the design of the Anglican St Paul's Church, Calcutta (1839–47) in Bengal during Company ...

, who was also

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

of the "Old Silver Mint" building at the India Government Mint, Kolkata, basing its

portico A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many c ...

on the

Parthenon The Parthenon (; grc, Παρθενών, , ; ell, Παρθενώνας, , ) is a former temple on the Athenian Acropolis, Greece, that was dedicated to the goddess Athena during the fifth century BC. Its decorative sculptures are conside ...

on the

Acropolis of Athens The Acropolis of Athens is an ancient citadel located on a rocky outcrop above the city of Athens and contains the remains of several ancient buildings of great architectural and historical significance, the most famous being the Parthenon. ...

History

The

Indian Army Corps of Engineers The Indian Army Corps of Engineers is a combat support arm which provides combat engineering support, develops infrastructure for armed forces and other defence organisations and maintains connectivity along the borders, besides helping the civil ...

is one of the oldest arms of the

, dating back to 1780, when the two regular pioneer companies of the Madras Sappers were raised, as a part of the East India Company's army. Prior to its formation, by 1740s officers and

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...

s from the

Kingdom of Great Britain The Kingdom of Great Britain (officially Great Britain) was a sovereign country in Western Europe from 1 May 1707 to the end of 31 December 1800. The state was created by the 1706 Treaty of Union and ratified by the Acts of Union 1707, w ...

served in the Bengal Engineers, Bombay Engineers and Madras Engineers, formed with the respective

Presidency armies The presidency armies were the armies of the three presidencies of the East India Company's rule in India, later the forces of the British Crown in India, composed primarily of Indian sepoys. The presidency armies were named after the preside ...

, while British soldiers served in each of the Presidencies' engineering

companies A company, abbreviated as co., is a legal entity representing an association of people, whether natural, legal or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members share a common purpose and unite to achieve specific, declared ...

, namely the Madras Sappers and Miners,

Bombay Sappers and Miners The Bombay Engineer Group, or the ''Bombay Sappers'' as they are informally known, are a regiment of the Corps of Engineers of the Indian Army. The Bombay Sappers draw their origin from the erstwhile Bombay Presidency army of the British Raj. ...

, and the Bengal Sappers and Miners. The Bengal Sappers and Miners was originally the Corps of Bengal Pioneers, which was raised from two pioneer companies in 1803, part of Bengal Army of the Presidency of Bengal; one raised by Capt T. Wood at Kanpur as Bengal Pioneers in November 1803, also known as "Roorkee Safar Maina". In 1819, at the conclusion of Third Maratha War, a part of Bengal Pioneers merged with the Company of Miners (raised in 1808) to become the Bengal Sappers and Miners, and raised at

Allahabad Allahabad (), officially known as Prayagraj, also known as Ilahabad, is a metropolis in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.The other five cities were: Agra, Kanpur (Cawnpore), Lucknow, Meerut, and Varanasi (Benares). It is the admin ...

, with Captain Thomas Anburey as the Commandant. The remaining part of the Corps of Bengal Pioneers was absorbed in 1833. In 1843 'Broadfoot's Sappers', which had been raised in 1840, merged into the Bengal Sappers and Miners. In 1847 the Bengal Sappers and Miners was renamed Bengal Sappers and Pioneers, and in 1851 it became the Corps of Bengal Sappers and Miners. On 7November 1853, the regiment moved to

, where it has maintained its regimental centre ever since. Lord Kitchener of Khartoum's 1903 Kitchener Reforms saw it re-designated as the 1st Sappers and Miners, which was again altered in 1906 to the 1st Prince of Wales's Own Sappers and Miners. On the accession of

George V George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until his death in 1936. Born during the reign of his grandmother Q ...

to the throne in 1910 it was renamed 1st King George V's Own Bengal Sappers and Miners, with the '1st' being dropped in 1923, to make it King George V's Own Bengal Sappers and Miners. In 1937 it was renamed King George V's Bengal Sappers and Miners, and in 1941 they became the 'King George V's Bengal Sappers and Miners Group of the Indian Engineers'. In 1946 it became the 'King George V's Group' of the Royal Indian Engineers. On Indian independence and partition in 1947, about half of the serving personnel were allocated to the Pakistan Royal Engineers. In 1950 they became the Bengal Centre, Corps of Engineers, after which they became the Bengal Engineer Group and Centre.

Battle honours

Colonel thomas tupper carter-campbell of possil

Colonial India

* Bhurtpore (1825), Ghuznee

; First Anglo-Afghan War (1839–1842) * Battle of Ghazni, Kabul 1842 ;

First Anglo-Sikh War The First Anglo-Sikh War was fought between the Sikh Empire and the British East India Company in 1845 and 1846 in and around the Ferozepur district of Punjab. It resulted in defeat and partial subjugation of the Sikh empire and cession ...

* Ferozeshah, Sobraon,

Multan Multan (; ) is a city in Punjab, Pakistan, on the bank of the Chenab River. Multan is Pakistan's seventh largest city as per the 2017 census, and the major cultural, religious and economic centre of southern Punjab. Multan is one of the olde ...

, Gujrat, ; Second Anglo-Sikh War *

Punjab Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising ...

;

Indian Rebellion of 1857 The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a major uprising in India in 1857–58 against the rule of the British East India Company, which functioned as a sovereign power on behalf of the British Crown. The rebellion began on 10 May 1857 in the fo ...

Delhi 1857 Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...

Lucknow Lucknow (, ) is the capital and the largest city of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and it is also the second largest urban agglomeration in Uttar Pradesh. Lucknow is the administrative headquarters of the eponymous district and divisio ...

Bengal Sapper and Miners Bastion, in Sherpur cantonment, Kabul, Second Afghan War, c

; Second Anglo-Afghan War * Afghanistan 1878–80 **

Ali Masjid Ali Masjid (Pashto and ) is the narrowest point of the Khyber Pass. It is located in Khyber District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. It is around east of the city of Landi Kotal (West of Peshawar) and has an elevation of . The width of the Khy ...

Charasiah Persian: چهار آسیاب ''Chahār Aasiāb'' Char Asiab, Chahar Asiab, Charasiab, Charasiah or Charasia is a town, ca. 7 miles south of Kabul in the Char Asiab District. It was the site of the Battle of Charasiab in 1879 and the Second Ba ...

, Kabul 1879 Ahmad Khel, ;

Third Anglo-Burmese War The Third Anglo-Burmese War ( my, တတိယ အင်္ဂလိပ် – မြန်မာစစ်, Tatiya Anggalip–Mran cac), also known as the Third Burma War, took place during 7–29 November 1885, with sporadic resistance conti ...

(1885–1887) * Burma 1885–87 ; Chitral Expedition (1895) * Chitral ; Tirah (1897–1898) * Tirah ;

Boxer Rebellion The Boxer Rebellion, also known as the Boxer Uprising, the Boxer Insurrection, or the Yihetuan Movement, was an anti-foreign, anti-colonial, and anti-Christian uprising in China between 1899 and 1901, towards the end of the Qing dynasty, b ...

* China 1900 ;

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

* France and Flanders 1914–15: **

La Bassée 1914 LA most frequently refers to Los Angeles, the second largest city in the United States. La, LA, or L.A. may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * La (musical note), or A, the sixth note * "L.A.", a song by Elliott Smith on ''Figure ...

, Festubert 1914,

Givenchy 1914 Givenchy (, ) is a French luxury fashion and perfume house. It hosts the brand of haute couture and ready-to-wear clothing, accessories, perfumes and cosmetics of Parfums Givenchy. The house of Givenchy was founded in 1952 by designer Hubert de ...

, Neuve Chapelle,

Festubert 1915 Festubert is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Hauts-de-France region of France. The village was on the Western Front during the First World War and was largely destroyed in the May 1915 Battle of Festubert. Geography A farming vil ...

, Aubers, Loos * Mesopotamia 1915–18: ** Defence of Kut al Amara 1915, Ctesiphon 1915,

Tigris 1916 Tigris 1916 was a battle honour awarded to units of the British and Imperial Armies that took part in the ultimately unsuccessful attempt to relieve the Siege of Kut in the Mesopotamian Campaign of the Great War.T.F. MillMesopotamia 1914-1918(archiv ...

Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesipho ...

, Khan Baghdadi, Sharqat, Kut al Amara 1917 * Aden * Palestine 1918: ** Megiddo, Sharon ** Damascus * Persia 1918 * North West Frontier India

1915 Events Below, the events of World War I have the "WWI" prefix. January *January – British physicist Sir Joseph Larmor publishes his observations on "The Influence of Local Atmospheric Cooling on Astronomical Refraction". *January 1 ...

& 1916–17,

Baluchistan Balochistan ( ; bal, بلۏچستان; also romanised as Baluchistan and Baluchestan) is a historical region in Western and South Asia, located in the Iranian plateau's far southeast and bordering the Indian Plate and the Arabian Sea coastline. ...

1918 ; Third Anglo-Afghan War *Afghanistan 1919. ;

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

* Malaya 1941–42 **

Kampar Kampar may refer to: Indonesia *Kampar Regency, Riau Province, eastern Sumatra *Kampar River, a river in the same province Malaysia *Kampar District, Perak *Kampar, Perak, a town in Kampar District *Kampar River, Malaysia Kampar may refer to: Ind ...

* North Africa 1940–43 * Italy 1943–45Cassino Memorial
**

Cassino II The Battle of Monte Cassino, also known as the Battle for Rome and the Battle for Cassino, was a series of four assaults made by the Allies against German forces in Italy during the Italian Campaign of World War II. The ultimate objective was ...

* Burma 1942–45 ** Yenangyaung 1942, Ngakedaung Pass, Jail Hill, Meiktila.

Republic of India

; First Indo-Pakistani War * Jammu and Kashmir 1947–48 ;

Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 The Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 or the Second Kashmir War was a culmination of skirmishes that took place between April 1965 and September 1965 between Pakistan and India. The conflict began following Pakistan's Operation Gibraltar, which was d ...

* Jammu and Kashmir 1965 * Punjab 1965 * Rajasthan 1965 ;

Third Indo-Pakistani War The Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 was a military confrontation between India and Pakistan that occurred during the Bangladesh Liberation War in East Pakistan from 3 December 1971 until the Pakistani capitulation in Dhaka on 16 Decemb ...

* East Pakistan 1971 * Jammu and Kashmir 1971 * Sindh 1971.

Victoria Cross recipients

Notes

References

Short Histories: * ''The Indian Sappers and Miners'',By Lieut.-Colonel E.W.C. Sandes D.S.O., M.C., R.E. (Ret.), Published by The Institution of Royal Engineers, Chatham, 1948
Extracts
* ''K.S. Calendar of battles, honours and awards : King George V's Own Bengal Sappers & Miners from 1803 to 1939'', by Rhamat Ullan Khan, ca. 1944. * ''History and digest of service of the 1st King George's Own Sappers & Miners''. Roorkee : 1st King's Own Press, (ca. 1911) * ''Regimental history of the King George's Own Bengal Sappers & Miners''. Roorkee : KGO Sappers & Miners Press, 1937. * ''Corps reunion and the unveiling of the war memorial''. (Roorkee : King George V's own Bengal sappers and miners group, R.I.E),1927. * ''History of the Corps of Royal Engineers'', by Great Britain Army. Royal Engineers, Whitworth Porter. Published by Longmans, Green, 1952. * ''The Bengal Sappers 1803–2003'', by General Sir George Cooper GCB MC and Major David Alexander. . * ''The Military Engineer in India'', by Lt. Col. E.W.C Sandes. Reprint 2001, Original 1933.. First World War: * Cunningham, A.H., ''A Short history of the Corps of King George's Own Bengal Sappers & Miners during the War, 1914-1918''. (1930) Second World War: * Pearson, G., ''Brief history of the K.G.V's own Bengal Sappers and Miners Group, R.I.E., August 1939-July 1946''. Roorkee : Pearson, 1947.

External links

Martyrs of Bengal Engineer Group
at ''

''
The Bengal Snappers - Roorkee, ''Official website''

'' Royal Engineers Museum''
Bengal Sappers and Miners on Regiments.org

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bengal Sappers And Miners British Indian Army regiments Regiments of the Indian Army Indian Army Corps of Engineers History of the Bengal Sappers Honours of the Bengal Sappers Military units and formations established in 1803 Haridwar district Indian World War I regiments Indian World War II regiments Bengal Presidency E 1803 establishments in the British Empire