Catalogue description Ministry of Defence and predecessors: Defence Clothing and Textiles Agency and predecessors: Papers

Amongst the major administrative changes in 1855 which created the War Department (later War Office) overall responsibility for stores and clothing was removed from the Master General, Lieutenant General and Principal Storekeeper of the Ordnance. Responsibility for clothing was vested in the Director Generals of Clothing and Contracts of the War Office and the Army Clothing Department was created, with establishments for the production, storage and inspection of clothing at Woolwich and Pimlico; responsibility for stores came under the newly created Director of Stores. Subsequently, administrative changes saw responsibility for various aspects of these services pass to the Commander-in-Chief, the Financial Secretary, the Adjutant General and the Director General Ordnance.

Following the closure of the Pimlico clothing factory, the Royal Army Clothing Department was wound up in 1933 and the store depot merged into the Central Ordnance Depot at Didcot. During the Second World War provision of clothing and stores were taken over by the Ministry of Supply; its headquarters were at Chessington and it had branches at Branston, Didcot, Farnborough and Woolwich Arsenal. On the demise of the Ministry of Supply in 1959, responsibility for military clothing and stores transferred back to the War Office.

The organization in the War Office was rationalised down to a Directorate of Stores and Clothing Development (DSCD) at Chessington, a separate Stores and Clothing Inspection Department at Didcot and a Clothing and Equipment Physiological Research Establishment at Farnborough. From 1964, the creation of a unified Ministry of Defence led to incorporation of the other services clothing and equipment requirements into DSCD. In 1967, DSCD moved to a new site in Colchester and was re-named the Stores and Clothing Research and Development Establishment (SCRDE). In 1972 the inspection work at Didcot became the Quality Assurance Directorate (Stores and Clothing) and both it and SCRDE came under the Director of Clothing and Textiles under the Director General Ordnance Services. In 1994 the Defence Clothing and Textile Agency was created with its headquarters at Andover, a Quality and Product Support Division at Didcot, a Science and Technology Division at Colchester, a Procurement Division at Glasgow and a Provisioning Division at Bicester.