It was not a general (pun not intended) practice for the Civil Service to recruit from the military, but from its founding in 1840 right up until the 1960s Her Majesty's Railway Inspectorate drew its personnel from the officers of the Corps of Royal Engineers. The last Chief Inspector with a military background, Major Rose, retired as recently as 1988.
Major Pringle worked on construction of railways in east Africa and India, before joining HMRI in 1900. He was appointed as head of His Majesty's Railways Inspectorate in 1916, by which time he had been promoted to Colonel.