Construction Engineering

At 1020 hrs on 15 April 2021, the Carillon at St Luke’s Chapel, Base Gagetown, chimed for the first time in over three years.  It had been repaired thanks to a Museum Development Fund Grant from the Directorate of History and Heritage.

The original All Sappers Memorial Carillon was a Schulmrtich Coronation Carillon that had been installed in the All Sappers Chapel at Camp Chilliwack in 1957, the 50th anniversary of the Royal Canadian School of Military Engineering.  In 1988, the original system was replaced with a Maas-Rove Carillon system.

The arrival of large numbers of troops in the United Kingdom, during the first years of the Second World War, created a crisis in accommodation and training facilities. The Royal Canadian Engineers soon found themselves involved in construction projects. Even the Divisional Engineers companies, whose primary activity was training for operations, were tasked with the construction of their own barracks and other facilities.

Before the outbreak of the Second World War, the British Government had determined that it needed facilities outside the United Kingdom for the training of large numbers of aircrew for the Royal Air Force. Canada, with its large land areas and clear weather conditions was considered to be an ideal location. With the outbreak of war in September 1939, the decision was made among the Allies to make Canada the location for much of the British Commonwealth aircrew training.

14 Airfield Engineering Flight Lunenburg was established in 1994 as a deployable Total-Force construction engineering unit that was based on the Reserve Force. At that time, ways were found to create several Airfield Engineering Flights whose broad support benefited from partnerships with the local community. 14 Airfield Engineering Squadron (now named 14 Construction Engineering Squadron - 14 CE Sqn) was established in 1997 to provide command and control after the formation of more such Flights.