Sapper Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
- This article is about the military vocation. For the pseudonymous author, see H. C. McNeile.
When castles served a military purpose, one of the tasks of sappers was to weaken the bases of castle walls to enable them to be breached--before means of thwarting these activities were invented. Broadly speaking, sappers were originally experts at demolishing or otherwise overcoming or bypassing fortification systems.
Sapper (abbreviated Spr) is the Royal Engineers' equivalent of Private. This is also the case within the Royal Australian Engineers, where referring to a Sapper as a Private is considered an insult and can result in disciplinary charges being laid.
