What the Railways Have Done 401 



organisation known as the " Engineer and Railway Staff 

 Corps," concerning which Mr C. H. Jeune says in the " Great 

 Eastern Railway Magazine" for June, 1911, in an article 

 accompanying a portrait (in uniform) of the general manager 

 of the Great Eastern, Mr W. H. Hyde, who is a Lieutenant- 

 Colonel of the corps in question : 



" In the case of the great Continental powers, with their 

 system of compulsory military service and the State ownership 

 of railways, immediately war is declared practically the whole 

 of the efficient male population, including the railway staff, 

 is ready to place itself under military discipline ; the effect 

 being that the transport or railway department, like the 

 infantry or artillery, becomes an integral part of the armed 

 forces of the country. But in England the transport arrange- 

 ments must of necessity be largely carried out by the railway 

 companies with the aid of their civilian employes. As a link 

 between the army and the companies there is an organisation, 

 the existence of which is not widely known, designated the 

 Engineer and Railway Staff Corps. One of the peculiar 

 features of this body is that it consists of officers only, many 

 of whom we dare to say have no practical knowledge of the 

 goose step. It never drills, no band of music heralds its 

 approach, yet its members are men of high technical ability, 

 and the duties it performs are of great value in the schemes of 

 national defence. 



" The corps was formed in 1864 by the patriotic exertions of 

 Charles Manby, F.R.S., an eminent civil engineer, who held 

 the post of adjutant with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel 

 in the corps. It is composed of civil engineers and con- 

 tractors, also general managers and other officers of railway 

 and dock companies. At present there are, in addition to the 

 Commandant, one honorary Colonel, thirty Lieutenant- 

 Colonels, and twenty-four majors. Their function is to advise 

 on the transport of troops by rail and the construction of 

 defensive works ; to direct the application of skilled labour 

 and of railway transport to the purposes of national defence, 

 and to prepare in time of peace a system on which such duties 

 should be conducted." 



Selected members of the Engineer and Railway Staff 

 Corps join with representatives of the Admiralty and the 

 War Office in forming the War Railway Council, which 

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