Garrison Staff

[grahamila]

I am researching a man who served on the Garrrison Staff in Ireland c1920 and later at Aldershot.  Does anyone know if any records exist relating to Garrison Staff?

[KGarrad]

Service records for those serving after 1920 are mostly with the MOD.
See: https://www.gov.uk/get-copy-military-service-records

[grahamila]

I have obtained the man's service papers but there is nothing in the way of details about his duties etc.

[Andy J2022]

Reference to the staff of a garrison strongly suggests he was an officer. The Garrison Staff would have been just one out of a number of postings during the man's career which will have started out with regimental duty. Due to the static, even sedentary, nature of the work of a garrison staff, some of these posts were sometimes filled by older officers, possibly commissioned from the ranks or men with health issues which made them unfit for active service.
Try to find a copy of the Army List for 1920 (for instance March 1920 here) and look up your man's name. If you can identify him in the Dublin Garrison staff, the entry will also tell you his parent regiment from which you can trace his earlier and later career.

However not all the posts within the garrison staff would be filled by officers: there would have been other ranks employed as clerks, cooks, drivers and storemen etc. 

[grahamila]

My man was a WOII.

[Andy J2022]

OK thanks. That could mean he might well have been any of those trades I mentioned, perhaps the ORQMS Chief Clerk, the Warrant Officer in charge of motor transport, the RQMS RAOC running the Garrison Quartermaster's stores, or as part of the forerunner to the Army Catering Corps, running the kitchen, an SQMSI running the garrison gym, the Garrison Clerk of Works RE, and so on.

[grahamila]

I think he was the ORQMS.  Do you know of any records other than the man's service papers?

[Andy J2022]

If he was an ORQMS he would have been a staff clerk in the Royal Army Ordnance Corps. In April 1993 during a major reorganisation of the Army the majority of the RAOC was absorbed into the Royal Logistics Corps, but the clerical trades became the Staff & Personnel Support (SPS) Branch of the newly formed Adjutant General's Corps. So your best bet would be to contact the AG Corps Association and also their museum, to see if they hold any additional information about your man. The RAOC had a Journal appropriately named the Royal Army Ordnance Corps Gazette, which I believe sometimes listed postings of soldiers,  as well as notes on daily life in the various units, so it might be worth tracking down some old copies for the period you are interested in, assuming it was published that long ago. I imagine the AG Corps museum may hold copies, but other military museums such as the Imperial War Museum or the National Army Museum might also have some back copies. Possibly also worth checking the British Library.

Afternote: The NAM holds a copy of Vol1 1920 of the RAOC Gazette. Accession number: 39783

[grahamila]

My man was Wiltshire Regiment so maybe RQMS.