Summary: The name change of the Branch from Military Engineering Branch to Canadian Military Engineers, approved in April 2018, has now been approved retroactively to February 1968.
Background: In the early 1960s, an integration process endeavoured to bring together the engineering functions of all three services. As part of this affiliation of engineers, previous service journals were replaced by a magazine called The Canadian Military Engineer with the first edition published in the summer of 1968. The formal unification of the Army, Navy, and Air Force occurred in February 1968. And despite the name of the magazine, the official name of the Branch first appeared as the Military Engineering Branch in CFAO 2-10 in August 1971.
The name Military Engineering Branch seems to have been accepted by the Branch in the early 1970s as it was used in correspondence concerning the development of a new Branch badge. However, the first badge approved by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in 1972 contained the words “Canadian Military Engineers” even though it was signed off as the badge of the Military Engineering Branch. Throughout the 1970s, the title of Military Engineering Branch predominated in official documents and organizational charts but the use of Canadian Military Engineers continued to be widespread. Regular publication of The Canadian Military Engineer magazine reinforced this preferred yet unofficial name.
Eventually, a formal request to change the Branch name to the Canadian Military Engineers was submitted and subsequently approved in April 2018. The name change was promulgated in CANFORGEN 064/18 ADM IE 001/18 121822Z APR 2018, Name Change - Military Engineering Branch.
Update: Last October, a second request was submitted to Military Personnel Command, seeking to apply the approved name change retroactively. On 03 March 2021, approval was granted for the retroactive application of the name The Branch of Canadian Military Engineers to 01 February 1968. This approval will permit the National Military Cemetery Beechwood to use this as the authorized name of the Branch for all engineers who have served since 1968. The retroactive application will also be made clear in the lineage documents produced by the Directorate of History and Heritage while retaining the sense of the Branch’s organizational history.
Chimo!