Ordnance Insignia of the British Army

The Royal Army Ordnance Corps

A Short Introduction

The Origins and Antecedents of the RAOC

Traditionally the role of the Royal Army Ordnance Corps (RAOC) and its forbears has been the procurement, storage and issue of armaments, ammunition and warlike matériel. During the 1965 McLoad reorganisation the supply functions of the Royal Army Service Corps (RASC) were transferred to the Corps, it became the sole supply Corps of the Army. The transport functions of the RASC became the Royal Corps of Transport (RCT). Since that time the RAOC became responsible for everything the Army needed to fight, move and subsist.

The RAOC can trace its ancestry back as far as 1414 when a civilian Office of Ordnance was created becoming a Military Board of Ordnance in 1683. The Board of Ordnance until its abolition in 1855 supplied weapons and ammunition to the whole Army, and was also entirely responsible for the Royal Artillery (RA) and the Royal Engineers (RE)

In 1792 the Field Train Department was formed under the Board's control. Numerous titles, departments and corps names ensued, with Officers and Other Ranks being members of different departments. This continued after 1896, when the Officers were assigned to the Army Ordnance Department (AOD), while Warrant Officers, NCOs and Soldiers were placed in the Army Ordnance Corps (AOC). It was not until after World War One in 1918, that the two were amalgamated to form the Royal Army Ordnance Corps.

The Corps motto is Sua Tela Tonanti which literally translated means ‘His missiles thundering (of Jupiter) But within the Corps the historical usage was ‘Unto the Thunderer his Arms’ later changing to ‘ To the Warrior his Arms’

The RAOC continued to serve the British Army until 1993, when it was amalgamated with the Royal Corps of Transport (RCT) , Royal Pioneer Corps (RPC), Army Catering Corps (ACC) and the Postal and Courier Services, of the Royal Engineers (RE), to become the Royal Logistics Corps (RLC).

The Royal Logistic Corps has regiments and detachments which continue the tasks of the founding Corps, all under one cap badge, which itself is an amalgamation of parts of each of its founding members. The Backing Star (of India) of the RCT (which was on the original RASC badge) The Centre Shield of the Board of Ordnance used by the RAOC, Crossed Pioneer Axes, and the motto ‘We Sustain’ of the Catering Corps, and last but not least the laurel wreath from the Royal Engineers (which of course is also from the RASC/RCT cap badge)

The Garter motto reads ‘ HONI SOIT QUI MAL Y PENSE’ (Evil to Him Who Evil Thinks)

M Comerford - August 2003 - HTML Revision 2