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Board of Ordnance: Army Service Corps (Britain)

Army Service Corps (Royal Army Service Corps after 1918)

Army Service Corps Ensign; Flag Book badge 1890

by Martin Grieve

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

Army Service Corps Ensign; probable badge

by Martin Grieve

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