Rochester Cathedral - King's Engineers

King's Engineers

Bishop Gundulf, a monk from the Abbey of Bec in Normandy came to England in 1070 as Archbishop Lafranc's assistant at Canterbury. His talent for architecture had been spotted by King William I and was put to good use in Rochester where he was sent as bishop in 1077. Almost immediately the king appointed him to supervise the construction of the White Tower, now part of the Tower of London in 1078. Under William Rufus he also undertook building work on Rochester Castle. Having served three Kings of England and earning "the favour of then all", Gundulf is accepted as the first "King's Engineer". Gundulf died in 1108 and his statue adorns the west door of the cathedral.

Because of his military engineering talent, Bishop Gundulf is regarded as the "father of the Corps of Royal Engineers". The corps claims a line of Kings Engineers pre-dating the engineers of the Board of Ordnance in 1414 and the formal founding of the corps in 1716 all the way back to Gundulf. This shared heritage and the close proximity to the cathedral of the Royal School of Military Engineering in Brompton means the Corps of Royal Engineers and Rochester Cathedral maintain strong links to this day.

There are over 25 memorials to individual officers and soldiers of the Corps of Roral Engineers and a number of memorials representing members of the corps that have given their lives in the discharge of their duty, including many stained glass windows presented by the corps.

A memorial tablet was erected in 1902 to the memory of three officers, graduates of the Royal Military College of Canada, who died while serving in Africa: Huntly Brodie Mackay, Captain Royal Engineers; William Henry Robinson, Captain Royal Engineers; and William Grant Stairs, Captain the Welsh Regiment.

The latest memorial to the Corps of Royal Engineers was dedicated during the service of remembrance on the Corps Memorial Weekend, 19 September 2010, in the presence of the Dean, the Very Revd Adrian Newman, the Chief Royal Engineer, General Sir Peter Anthony Wall and the families of the ten Royal Engineers killed in Afghanistan since September 2009, recipients of the Elizabeth Cross.