Ordnance Department

The Ordnance Department was the part of the military responsible for the supply of weapons and ammunition. It appears that, at least in Bengal, it was also responsible for the Stud Department.

In the days of the EIC, it was part of the Town Major's List (Bengal & Bombay) and Effective Supernumeraries (Madras). Initially part of the Unattached List (B) in the Indian Army, it became the Indian Army Ordnance Department in 1884 and was headed by the Commissariat General - Ordnance and then became the Indian Army Ordnance Corps in 1922.

FIBIS resources

• "John Braddock- Powder Master" by Sylvia Murphy FIBIS Journal Number 28 (Autumn 2012) pages 25-31. John Braddock arrived in Madras in 1813. See FIBIS Journals for details of how to access this article.

Also see

• Conductors
• Unattached List
• Cossipore, the location of a gun factory
• Dum Dum, the location of an ammunition factory
• Ishapore, the location of a gunpowder factory, and later a rifle factory

Occupations

Ordnance artificers

This India List post is about men who were Carnatic Ordnance artificers, including the training these men received. An artificer, or artifier, has the general meaning of craftsman, and the meanings also include ‘A military mechanic, as a blacksmith, carpenter, etc.; also, one who prepares the shells, fuses, grenades, etc., in a military laboratory’ and 'A member of the military who specializes in manufacturing and repairing weapon systems' (Carnatic is a term for South India, and refers to Madras Presidency)

In Madras, many who were employed in the Carnatic Corps of Artificers, which was attached to the Gun Carriage Manufactory, were Anglo-Indian (Eurasian)

Civil Chief Master Armourer

The duties of a Civil Chief Master Armourer are discussed in this Victorian Wars Forum thread dated September 2013. They appear to be persons who went around inspecting weapons in places which held them, such as police stations and prisons.

External links

• The East India Company's Arsenals & Manufactories by Brig-Gen Henry A. Young, Director of Ordnance Factories in India 1917-1920, first published in 1937 and re-published by Naval & Military Press in 2005 gives historical background of munitions factories etc. Available through Amazon.co.uk from the FIBIS Shop. The original edition is available at the British Library.
• "The Origin of "the Pusa Experiment" : The East India Company and Horse-Breeding in Bengal, 1793-1808" by Garry John Adler, Bengal Past & Present, 98 (1979), 10-32. Publisher: Calcutta Historical Society. ISSN 00058807. Also refer Veterinary Surgeon for details of William Moorcroft who was the first English Veterinary Surgeon at Pusa.
• Army Ordinance Corps indiapicks.com

Historical books online

• Strength, Organisation and Composition of the Army of Great Britain, Martin Petrie (1864) gives details of the Ordnance Department factories, pp164-167.
• The Ordnance Department Imperial Gazetteer of India, Volume  4, page 362. Mentions the various factories.