The Engineer “snooker”
Army and Navy Gazette, Saturday 08 April 1893
The old system fostered the Engineer soldier, whereas the existing plan makes the Royal Engineer more civilian than ever. The entrance examination may be said to settle the question of proficiency in mathematics, and the bifurcation a year later simply emphasises it. The Engineer “snooker” is consequently as clearly marked out as if he were already in the Gazette, and it is as unnecessary to trouble him with twelve months’ elementary Artillery as it is to expend labour over the “snooker” gunner in the vain attempt to get an excess of Engineer mathematics into his Artillery head.