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.

The title changed to Indian Army Ordnance (Store) Department 1887, and was headed by the Commissariat General - Ordnance. It subsequently became the Indian Army Ordnance Corps, 1922.

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

• Sketch of the mode of manufacturing gunpowder at the Ishapore mills in Bengal by William Anderson 1862 Archive.org
• Strength, Organisation and Composition of the Army of Great Britain, Martin Petrie (1864) gives details of the Ordnance Department factories, pp164-167.