Military Survey has a very long history within the Corps going back to early military surveying requirements such as General Roy’s map of Scotland dating from 1747.  Within the barracks at Hermitage are a large number of artefacts – historic maps, old survey instruments, photographs, etc  - which at present are not particularly well catalogued, if at all.  Sometime between 2011 and 2014 the Royal School of Military Survey (RSMS) is expected to move to Chicksands as part of the Defence College of Intelligence, and 42 Engineer Regiment (Geographic) to Wyton as part of the Intelligence Collection Group. 

Both the Principal of RSMS (John Knight) and the Commanding Officer of 42 Regiment (Lt Col Rupert Dash) have both expressed concerns that once these moves take place their units will be within much larger garrison organisations which will not be focused on the Royal Engineers.  They have requested support from the Defence Surveyors’ Association to catalogue all of the historic items at Hermitage prior to the move, to include all items spread across the units and to identify items of interest within the Officers’ and Warrant Officers’ & Sergeants Messes which might also be of historical value and which might be lost within a larger garrison structure.  Three ex-RE officers who are members of the DSA (Maj Gen Roy Wood, Col Mike Nolan and Maj Alan Gordon) have volunteered to take on this task, assisted by Dr Yolande Hodson. 

However, cataloguing of what we have is merely the first step; we then have to decide what to do with these items at the time of the moves to Chicksands and Wyton.  An intial meeting with the Curator of the RE Museum and confirmed that in the event of a move from the Hermitage site, the Museum would be prepared to take ownership for Military Survey heritage items, particularly where these are unique to Military Survey or have had a significant impact on the activities of the Corps.  It is now intended to begin cataloguing in early 2008, by which time we should have a copy of the software used by the Museum so that we can capture information in the same format as that used at Chatham.