CRE - what exactly does it mean

[michaeldr]

CRE

 

It's common enough, but what exactly does it mean?

No guesses please (I can do those for myself)

e.g:

Commandant Royal Engineers

ditto – but without the final 's'
 

Commander Royal Engineers

ditto – but without the final 's'
 

Commanding Royal Engineers

ditto – but without the final 's'
 

Or something else?

 

Thanks for enlightenment

Michael

[DavidOwen]

According to this site it is either:

 

Commanding (or Commander) Royal Engineers

Or

Corps of Royal Engineers

 

Of course there could be others.

 

David

[horatio2]

"commander Royal Engineers (engineer commander in a division)" according to Richard Holmes "Tommy" . c.f. CRA "commander Royal Artillery".

Edited 11 July , 2019 by horatio2

[Terry_Reeves]

Michael

 

Commander Royal Engineers. Prior to 1915? it was Commanding Royal Engineer. In  WW1 this generally applied to the senior RE officer commanding the two and later, three divisional field companies. A CRE could also be found on the staff of the Chief Engineer of a Corps.

 

TR

Edited 11 July , 2019 by Terry_Reeves

[michaeldr]

Gentlemen, many thanks indeed.

(I'm slightly embarrassed here, as after a couple of hours searching through the book shelves, the one volume I neglected to consult was 'Tommy')

Thanks again