OSC Title

[Alex Rice]

Hi All
I just picked up this title, identified as Ordnance Store Corps, 1881-96, which I had never seen or heard of before. Can anyone tell me more about it, is it a scarce item as I have never seen one before either.
Thanks, cheers,
Alex

[mike_vee]

The National Archives has 2 documents :

1. 1882-1883 Army Hospital Corps: (Commissariat Transport and Ordnance Store Corps) Egypt: General States,

2. 1881-1888 Commissariat, Transport and Ordnance Staff Corps.


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[mike_vee]

Bonhams 22 November 2011 :

Army Ordnance Corps/Royal Army Ordnance Corps Insignia

https://www.bonhams.com/auction/1899...orps-insignia/


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[Alex Rice]

Thanks guys.
Cheers,
Alex

[Mike_2817]

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: 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.

In 1870 a further reorganization, ostensibly to simplify management, resulted in the MSD, MSC and MSSC being grouped with the Army Service Corps (ASC) under the Control Department. The officers remained a separate branch (Ordnance or Military Stores) in the Control Department but the soldiers were absorbed into the ASC. This arrangement lasted until 1876.

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 Armorers and the RA's Armament Artificers.

In 1918 the AOD and AOC amalgamated to form the Royal Army Ordnance Corps (RAOC) and for the first time officers and soldiers served in the same organization; the Corps received the "Royal" prefix in recognition of its service during the First World War.

The OSC title is considered scarce, but the OSD title Rare..

[49lassiepen]

my example in gallery and my album