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The Royal Engineers = R.E. wasn't a regiment in the way that an infantry or cavalry regiment was.

It was a Corps, ( pronounced as core ), a Corps can also mean a large subdivision of an army.

In the case of the R.E. it means a separate organisation with specialist skills and duties.

The R.E. laid cables, dug tunnels, built roads, operated water transport, did a whole range of mechanical and constructional tasks, by the end of the war there were nearly 300,000 men in the R.E..

A Private in the R.E. is called a Sapper from an old fashioned word which means to dig, a sap is also another name for a trench or a tunnel.

The R.E. would have operated in separate self contained units, but many of those units would have been attached to, or worked in conjunction with, other army units, such as infantry or artillery units.

http://www.1914-1918.net/cre.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapper

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corps

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunnelling_companies_of_the_Royal_Engineers

http://www.re-museum.co.uk/research/family_history/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Engineers

I'll get back to you about Frank and the others, this is Frank's medal record card below, some of his service documents have also survived so I know this is the same person as the man on the census.

Ah, Sapper, ( Spr.), Frank Denton has two service numbers 522782 in the R.E. and he must also have been in the Territorial unit of the R.E. before WW1 because he also has a number 3319 in the R.E. (T)

He has the British War Medal and the Allied Victory Medal.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_campaign_medals#World_War_I

I don't suppose that the medals of your maternal grandfather, Albert Denton, are still in the possession of the family, if they were, they would tell you his rank, service number, and unit.

Right click on the document pictures and then select open image or whatever equivalent command your browser uses, in order to display the image separately in full screen.

Right click on the document pictures and select the appropriate browser command in order to download and save them in picture format.

I was about to give you some more info on this, but thanks to the self appointed sheriff below and the rottweiler moderators on here, I'm gone, permanently, good luck with your search, oh and btw, mum was right about Harold.

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Possibly. ? 
http://www.amazon.co.uk/York-Lancaster-Regiment-Archive-Photographs/dp/075242047X

His name wasn't Steven, it was Stephen, he was awarded the DSO, and he had also served in the Kings Liverpool Regiment, he was knighted in 1931.

That Battalion was formed in Rotherham.

The Imperial War Museum has a film of him unveiling the Rawmarsh and Parkgate War Memorial near Rotherham in 1928.

http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/1060010559

Although, in their description of the War Memorial, they refer to him ( seemingly mistakenly ), as J.P. Rhodes, perhaps he was also a Justice of the Peace and his name should have read Rhodes J.P.

http://www.ukniwm.org.uk/server/show/conMemorial.2665/fromUkniwmSearch/1

That War Memorial is in the care of Rotherham Council and I'll bet that they have pictures of the unveiling either in their records or in the relevant local Public Records Office, and also, it's unveiling would certainly have been covered in the local press, and if the local newspapers from that period are still in existence, they will probably have a record of the event.

The person to speak to at the Council is probably this person...

Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council
 Jon Bell
 Assistant Conservation Officer
www.rotherham.gov.uk 

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To cut to the chase, and omit the reasoning on this for now, the bottom line on this is, IF you know for 100% certain, provably, and beyond any possible doubt or error, that the man who died in Wales in 1951 definitely WAS your grandfather,...then,...he wasn't the Albert Hugh whom you found in the census who was born in Bedford in 1898,...he WAS,...this man...

Albert Denton born in Bedford Oct/November/December 1893

That's his birth registration date and parents have 6 weeks in which to register a birth, and so he could have been born as early as mid August.

The details for the Albert Hugh Denton who was born in Bedford in 1898 and who died there in 1975 are a perfect match and there aren't any other possible matches.

There has never been a death for Albert Hugh Denton or Albert H. Denton in Wales.

The only death in Wales in the 1950's for a man with the surname of Denton and a first name of Albert was Albert Denton, no additional forenames, who died in the Pontypridd area of Glamorganshire in the first quarter of 1951 aged 57.

Which puts his date of birth at around early 1894.

There are only two possible birth matches for that death.

One is slightly out because he has an additional birth forename.

One is slightly out because his date of birth seems to be slightly too late.

However, if their deaths were registered by someone who didn't know them very well, then an error could have been made.

I suspect that the first person is the correct one.

The two births were...

Albert Henry Denton born in April/May/June 1894 in the Hartley Wintney area of Hampshire.

Albert Denton born in October/November/December 1894 in the Hunslet area of Yorkshire.