Last modified: 2004-11-06 by rob raeside
Keywords: board of ordnance | ordnance | army service corps | swords crossed |
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In 1888 the Army Service Corps, formed in 1869, was made responsible for
supply and transport, and took over the War Department Fleet. Its main base was
Woolwich, on the Thames east of London, but vessels, manned mainly by uniformed
civilians, were maintained at Chatham, Portsmouth, Devonport, Singapore, Hong
Kong, Bermuda, Barbados, Jamaica, Nova Scotia, Ceylon, Mauritius, Gibraltar,
Malta, and Sierra Leone.
A Military Service Blue Ensign with crossed swords in the fly was authorised,
and added to the Admiralty Flag Book on 3rd October 1890 with the note, "For
vessels and boats employed by departments of the Secretary of State for War on
military service (including staff officers) other than those for which special
flags are authorised."
The badge shown in the Admiralty Flag Book is very small and would have been
almost invisible on an ensign.
David Prothero, 21 September 2004
I think that in practice the badge would have been enlarged to something
like this, which is still no larger that the regulation circle.
David Prothero, 21 September 2004
By the 1940s the swords had been made much larger. This image is based on
the photograph of a flag on a launch of No.2 Motor Boat Company, RASC, in 1941.
The badge was placed at the beginning of the British Empire section of the
Admiralty Flag Book, on the same page as Diplomats, Colonial Governors, and
General Officers Commanding, and not at the end of the section, on the page with
the Ordnance/Artillery and Engineers badges. Perhaps the inclusion of 'staff
officers' in the original title led to this curious arrangement, which continued
for two more editions until 1930, when all the military maritime flags finally
came together on the same page.
The main water-borne task of the Army Service Corps was routine transport, and
the operation of firing ranges. Towed targets were provided for coastal
artillery practice, together with safety-launches for all firing ranges. Over
the years the scope of its operations expanded, so that whereas in the 1890s, it
was transporting guns from the arsenal at Woolwich, down river to the test
ranges on the north side of the Thames Estuary, in the 1960s it was maintaining
guided missile ranges in the Outer Hebrides.
In Gibraltar, Malta, and possibly some other colonies where the governor was
also commander-in-chief, the governor's launch was manned by the army, and flew
the crossed swords Blue Ensign, rather than the Blue Ensign of the colony.
David Prothero, 21 September 2004
Minor watercraft operated by the British army fly a Blue Ensign with
crossed swords in the fly. Commissioned ships of the Army (i.e. those
commanded by commissioned officers) fly a Blue Ensign with the army badge
in the fly. The ensign with swords only was once flown by all army-operated
vessels; nowadays it is called the Royal Logistical Corps ensign and is
restricted to vessels commanded by non-commissioned officers, though it
may also be flown over appropriate shore installations. The present army
ensign was introduced some time after World War II. My drawings are based
on information provided by Bruce Berry and by photographs in Proceedings
of the U.S. Naval Institute.
Tom Gregg, 9 February 1997