Ordnance Insignia of the British Army

Early Ordnance Insignia.

'Board of Ordnance' Officers (1515 - 1855)


Buttons - Bearing the Ordnance Arms. c1830 - 1855
(This is a drawing or a recently descovered button, believed to be the early Board of Ordnance design)

Field Train Department (1792 - 1859)

Extract from Dress Regulations for the Army dated 1855

Military Storekeepers and Clerks c1855 - 1860
(Page152 first continues on from page 151 for Field Train Department)
(Barrack-Masters remained part of the Army Service Corps)

Above extracts from Dress Regulations for the Army dated 1855

Military Store Department (MSD) 1857 - 1870

Officers - Cocked hat with white cocktail feathers in full dress or forage cap with no badge
Buttons - In gilt with a raised crown and the words ‘MILITARY STORE STAFF’
MSD Clerks - ‘M.S.’ in gold embroidered on forage cap and shoulder straps.

Military Store Staff Corps (MSSC) 1865 - 1870

Letters ‘M.S.S.C.’ in centre of Last Pattern Shako Plate (See ASC example)
Buttons - Presumed to be same as Military Store Department (if worn)
Shoulder straps bearing the embroidered initials ‘M.S.S.D.’

Control Department 1870 - 1876

The Military Store Department, merged with other departments (Officers) to form the Control Department.
Wearing this title on Gilt Buttons and Waist Belt Plate respectively.

Other ranks were placed into the newly formed Army Service Corps (ASC)

Army Service Corps (ASC) 1870 - 1877


Ref - KK 182
Last Shako Plate - 1869 -1878

Other-ranks - In the centre the letters ASC entwined, All in Gliding-metal

Buttons - General Service Pattern.

Ordnance Branch of the Army Service Corps 1877 - 1881

OB added to ASC on the Shako Plate.

M Comerford - August 2003 - HTML Revision 2