With the adoption of the Singapore strategy in the 1920s as a key cornerstone of Imperial Defence, Singapore and Malaya became the major British bases in the East, not only to defend British possessions in Asia, but also the dominions of Australia and New Zealand, who also contributed a large portion of the construction costs. [1]

Prior to 1981/82 the Royal Army Ordnance Corps, in common with the rest of the British Army, used the idiosyncratic system of staff titles that was unique to British and most Commonwealth armies. After 1981 in NATO assigned units, principally those in British Army of the Rhine (BAOR), the standard NATO system was adopted with all appointments elsewhere changing the following year. Between 1795 and 1815, the Field Train served in thirty expeditions and campaigns. [6] In peacetime, the civilians and sergeants returned to their former duties, but the cadre of officers was retained; they were based initially in the Royal Arsenal, and then in the Grand Depot (just off Woolwich Common) where the guns were stored ready for deployment. At the start of the Crimean War, the Ordnance Field Train was mobilized once again. An parallel supply corps within the Army (the Royal Waggon Train, first established in 1794) had been disbanded as a cost-cutting measure in 1833, however, and its responsibilities devolved again to the Commissariat (which was by now more attuned to peacetime operations than warfare); [6] after a well-publicised series of logistical failings the Commissariat and the Board of Ordnance, as well as the command-structure of the army itself, were all strongly criticised, leading (among other things) to the abolition of the Board (in 1855) and its Field Train Department (in 1859, its officers having transferred to the new Military Store Department). [5] After Crimea [ edit ] On 5 April 1993, following the Options for Change review, the Royal Army Ordnance Corps united with the Royal Corps of Transport, the Royal Pioneer Corps, the Army Catering Corps, and the Postal and Courier Service of the Royal Engineers, to form the Royal Logistic Corps. [37] Later that year the RLC withdrew from the Tower of London, where the RAOC had continued to maintain a centuries-old link; [38] and the following year the last vestige of the once-vast ordnance depot left Woolwich, with the closure of Royal Arsenal (West) and departure of the Ordnance QAD (Quality Assurance Directorate). [39] Appointments in the RAOC [ edit ] Appointments in the RAOC [ edit ]

Advanced Ordnance Depot: 5 Advanced Ordnance Depot (5 AOD) was a short lived RAAOC and RNZAOC combined Depot in Singapore 1970 to 1971. [14] Major General A Forbes 'A History of the Army Ordnance Services' Medici Society, London 1929. Vol I. p192

Commander Royal Army Ordnance Corps (CRAOC), a lieutenant colonel - occasionally a colonel in UK districts - and senior RAOC officer in a two star headquarters.In the years following the Crimean War three corps can be identified as the direct predecessors of the RAOC. The Military Store Department (MSD) created in 1861 granted military commissions and provided officers to manage stores inventories. In parallel a subordinate corps of warrant officers and sergeants, the Military Store Clerks Corps (MSC), was also created to carry out clerical duties. These small corps (235 officers in the MSD and 44 MSC) were based largely at the Tower of London, Woolwich Arsenal and Weedon Bec, but were also deployable on active service. They were supplemented in 1865 by the establishment at Woolwich of a Military Store Staff Corps (MSSC) to provide soldiers: [7] initially 200-strong, it had more than doubled in size by 1869, with units in Portsmouth, Devonport, Aldershot, Dublin and Chatham as well as at Woolwich and the Tower. [1]

The Control Department was disbanded in 1876. The Ordnance/Military Store officers joined a newly created Ordnance Stores Department (OSD). Five years later, in 1881, the soldiers also left the ASC and became the Ordnance Store Corps (OSC). In 1894 there were further changes. The OSD was retitled the Army Ordnance Department (AOD) and absorbed the Inspectors of Machinery from the Royal Artillery (RA). In parallel the OSC was retitled the Army Ordnance Corps (AOC) and at the same time absorbed the Corps of Armourers and the RA's Armament Artificers. [9] Central Ordnance Depot [COD] Bicester: computerisation; staffing implications". National Archives. Archived from the original on 29 January 2022 . Retrieved 29 January 2022. < a b Fernyhough, Brigadier A. H. (1967). History of the Royal Army Ordnance Corps1920-1945. Royal Army Ordnance Corps. p.421.

World Wars

Vehicle Company 1945–195?9 King George then Park Jurong Road, Singapore, [12] renamed to 221 Base Vehicle Depot In 1895 the Royal Army Clothing Department, with its factory and depot at Pimlico, was taken over by the AOD which then became responsible for the provision of uniforms and other items of clothing for much of the army. [14] Field units [ edit ] British Army logistics in the Boer War: mule train, 1899. Extract from a War Office Committee of 1888-9 on Ordnance matters, probably penned by General Sir William Butler; quoted in Major General A Forbes, 'A History of the Royal Army Ordnance Corps' Vol II Medici Society London 1929, p3.n