The Commissariat and Transport Corps (1881)
back to history menu

The failing of the Commissariat and Transport Department exposed by the Zulu war brought a swift reaction from the War Office.  The ASC was abolished and replaced by the Commissariat and Transport Corps.

The Commissariat and Transport staff were created to build up a reserve of experienced regimental officers trained in supply and transport duties.  These could augment, in time of war, those Commissariat Officers transferred from the old department.  The idea was to attract regimental officers of 5 years standing from the artillery, cavalry and infantry regiments with an offer of extra pay.

Redesignating the ASC brought about the final separation of the Commissariat and Transport Companies from the Ordnance Store Corps.  Junior officers were found for the Commissariat companies by conferring commissions on warrant officers who became Quartermasters but performed normal subalterns' duties.

Following the experience of employing an improvised unit in the Zulu war, the Army Medical Department introduced bearer companies manned by the Army Hospital Corps to collect casualties in battle and evacuate them to Mobile Field Hospitals.  Commissariat and Transport Corps companies provided officers, NCOs and men to control and drive the horse-drawn ambulances and pack mules for these medical units.  So began the Corps' association with the transport for Field Ambulances RAMC which has continued to the present day.

EGYPT AND THE SUDAN 1882-1885
Financial and strategic interest in the Suez Canal involved Britain in the affairs of Egypt and the Sudan during the last twenty years of the nineteenth century and resulted in a few military conflicts.

EGYPT 1882
Britain sent a force of 24,000 men under Sir Garnett Wolseley to reinstate the legitimate ruler, Khedive Twefik.  The force comprised 8 companies of the Commissariat and Transport Corps each allocated to the support of a Division under overall command of Assistant Commissary General H S E Reeves.  After capturing Alexandria, Wolseley planned a rapid advance on Cairo.  The arrangements for landing supplies were defective and when regimental transport broke down, the feeding of the troops caused much concern.  Although Wolseley took a chance on landing more men than could be fed by the Commissariat, success vindicated his judgement even though it was a close call.

SUDAN 1884
An uprising against Egypt inspired by a religious leader, the Mahdi, caused the appointment of  General Gordon as Governor of the Sudan.  The Sudanese inflicted several defeats on the Egyptian army which isolated Gordon in the capital, Khartoum and culminated in the Nile Campaign (Relief of Khartoum).
back to history menu