Catalogue description Royal Army Ordnance Corps Photographs

Official photographs form the basis of the collection, showing groups of personnel, depot buildings, materials held, and visits by Colonels Commandant and by members of the Royal family. Items given by former personnel include group photographs, but also many informal pictures. In the late 20th century many photographs were donated to the Museum by the Corps Gazette, including images which the Gazette chose not to publish.

Only home units and wartime photographs are listed in this catalogue, but it should be noted that the RLC Museum holds a significant number of photographs from overseas RAOC units, from almost every British army station around the world.

The photographs are arranged by depot (alphabetically by name) or unit (by number, with separate sections on wartime, specialist, miscellaneous and Territorial Army units), but there is inconsistency in the allocation of photographs to sections. Approximately half of the photographs bear an accession number, which could be checked against the RAOC Museum accession registers, but many appear to have been written onto the photograph retrospectively, as Museum staff have in the past checked the physical items against the registers. Other photographs were stored in packets bearing their accession numbers, which appear to have been recorded at the time of acquisition, and others have the donor's name written on the back. These clues were used to recreate, as far as possible, groups of photographs which were received together; and the groups have been listed as 'files'. Many photographs bore no description, and have been identified by staff and trustees of the RLC Museum. Where the informant was unsure of his facts, uncertainty has been signified by a question mark.The title of a file or photograph is the depot name, unit number, title of conflict or other grouping description.

The RLC Museum Archive holds a complete set of RLC and Forming Corps Journals dating from the Nineteenth Century to the present day. The website www.rlcarchive.org has placed on-line all of those which the Forming Corps published between 1914 and 1964, covering the period from the start of the First World War to the end of National Service. The Journals can be browsed from page to page or searched by a word or phrase of choice.

The Journals are a valuable source of information on the activities of the Forming Corps and the lives of those who served with them. The Journals provide details of operations, exercises, unit news and Corps sport.

For those wishing to learn more of individual soldiers and officers who served in the Forming Corps the Journals can be a very useful source of research. The Journals published details of individuals' promotions, postings, marriages and obituaries. Casualty lists, seniority lists and medal awards were also published in the Journals. At the very least the Journals can provide general background information to an officer's or soldier's time in the Forming Corps.

Also available on this website are the Quarterlies/Reviews of the Army Service Corps/Royal Army Service Corps (ASC/RASC) that were published between 1905 and 1964. These more scholarly publications provide a more detailed understanding of the work of the ASC/RASC. Articles in the Quarterlies were usually written by serving Officers on subjects that include doctrinal and technological developments within the Corps. The Quarterlies also published narratives of campaigns and operations, written with an emphasis on supply and transport in the British Army.

Over time, the format of the Journals did occasionally change. Consequently the content emphasis does vary. Please also note although this website offers access to all the Journals published between 1914 and 1964, within these years there were periods when some of the Forming Corps did not produce a Journal. However, activities and operations that did occur in years which Journals were not published are usually written up retrospectively when publication of the Journals resumed. Details for when the Forming Corps did not publish Journals are as follows: The Army Ordnance Corps did not publish a Journal between 1915 and 1919.; The Royal Pioneer Corps did not publish an official journal until 1946. This website does include the Journal produced by 30 Group RPC between 1943 and 1945.; The Army Catering Corps' first Journal was not published until 1947.; ASC/RASC Quarterlies were not published over the years 1915-1921 and 1940-1948..

Access to the Journals is on a pay/view or subscription basis. Please see www.rlcarchive.org for further details.

Royal Army Ordnance Corps

These photographs were collected, together with objects and archives, by the RAOC Museum, and by the RLC Museum after the formation of the Royal Logistic Corps in 1993. The RAOC Museum was founded in 1947 at Central Ordnance Depot, Feltham, Middlesex, and moved to Deepcut in 1950, but the building and most of the collections were destroyed by fire in 1951. Subsequent accessions are recorded in registers which date from 1955. Material was given both by RAOC (and later RLC) Headquarters, units and depots, and by former soldiers of the Corps, or their executors; and curators of the RAOC Museum obtained copies of photographs from individuals and from the Imperial War Museum. In 1993 the RAOC and Royal Corps of Transport, together with the Royal Pioneer Corps, the Army Catering Corps and the Postal and Courier Service of the Royal Engineers, amalgamated to form the Royal Logistic Corps. A new Corps Museum was built in 1995 to accommodate the collections of each of the constituent Corps. The Army Ordnance Department (officers) and Army Ordnance Corps (other ranks) were established in 1893. In 1918, in recognition of their achievements during the First World War, the two bodies were amalgamated into one Corps, with the prefix 'Royal'. The Corps's role was to supply the army with, and maintain, weapons, ammunition, etc., and stores other than rations, forage, fuel, oils and lubricants. In 1965, responsibility for providing all stores, and for barracks and fire services, were transferred to the RAOC from the Royal Army Service Corps when the Royal Corps of Transport was established.

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