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The 1st Devonshire Engineer Volunteer Corps, later the Devonshire Fortress Royal Engineers, was a volunteer unit of Britain's Royal Engineers whose history dated back to 1862. The unit helped to defend the vital naval base of Plymouth, and supplied detachments for service in the field in both World Wars. During the North African campaign in World War II, the unit's sappers distinguished themselves in bridging the Nile and clearing minefields during and after El Alamein. Their successors served on the postwar Territorial Army until 1969. ==Origins== The enthusiasm for the Volunteer movement following an invasion scare in 1859 led to the creation of many Rifle, Artillery and Engineer Volunteer units composed of part-time soldiers eager to supplement the Regular British Army in time of need.〔Beckett.〕 One such unit was the 1st Devonshire Engineer Volunteer Corps (EVC) formed at Torquay, with the first officers' commissions dated 28 January 1862.〔Beckett, Appendix IX.〕〔Westlake, pp. 7–8.〕 The 1st Devonshire EVC was attached for administrative purposes to the 1st (Exeter and South Devon) Devonshire Rifle Volunteer Corps from April 1863 until August 1869, when it joined the 1st Administrative Battalion of Gloucestershire EVCs. With the reorganisation of the Volunteer Force in 1880, the Gloucestershire Admin Bn was consolidated as the 1st Gloucestershire EVC, with the 1st Devon providing E Company at Torquay and F Company at Exeter.〔 The EVC titles were abandoned in 1888, when the units became 'Engineer Volunteers, Royal Engineers', proclaiming their affiliation to the Regular RE, and then simply 'Royal Engineers (Volunteers)' in 1896.〔Westlake, p. 3.〕 In August 1889 the Devon and Somerset companies were removed from the Gloucestershire battalion and constituted as a separate 1st Devonshire and Somersetshire RE (V), with its HQ at the Priory, Colleton Crescent, Exeter.〔〔''Monthly Army List''.〕〔(Exeter at The Drill Hall Project. )〕〔(Priory Drill Hall at Historic England. )〕 The 1st Devonshire and Somerset RE (V) sent a detachment of one officer and 25 other ranks to assist the regular REs during the Second Boer War in 1900, and a second section the following year.〔Watson, pp. 42–3.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「1st Devonshire Engineers」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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