MILITARY - BRITISH - ARMY CATERING CORPS CAP BADGE (2)

After the war and up to the early 1960s, many of the cooks were National Servicemen drafted in and allocated to jobs. They were generally poorly motivated, and there was little continuity, craft progression, or incentive for them to remain in the Army as regular soldiers. It was then that the British Army was re-organised into an all-regular force and this made a tremendous difference. It was recognised that catering and cooking was the business of experts and that all aspects of the business had to be directed by selected and properly trained staff.

The training of not only chefs, but officers, warrant officers and non-commissioned officers in the supervision of catering in barracks and in the field became increasingly successful. Members of the ACC had for the first time a properly managed career structure and posting plan, which ensured that they developed the proper range of skills for progress through the ranks.

The Army Catering Corps has had a long association with the local authority in Aldershot and on 19th May 1971, was granted the Freedom of the Borough of Aldershot, allowing it the privilege of marching through the town ‘with bands playing, drums beating and bayonets fixed’. Again, on 19th May 1980 the Corps received Freedom of the Borough of Rushmore, which culminated in the presentation of the Freedom Scroll in a solid silver casket, in the Rushmore Arena.

By the early 1980s, the Corps was a highly respected and integral part of every unit in the British Army. Its soldiers were fit, professional, and highly motivated, and pioneers of catering management training. It is quite often forgotten that ACC cooks served with the Household Division, SAS and Parachute Regiment. We also trained and employed Gurkha cooks, non-commissioned officers, warrant officers and officers, in British cuisine and kitchen management, as well as Gurkha cookery.

In 1991 the Corps was feted across the world as caterers and their units proudly shared, the celebration of the Corps’ 50th Anniversary. Soon after this historic milestone in the Corps’ history, pressure began to mount for the Armed Forces to reduce in size because of the perceived reduction in the threat to world peace. After considerable and wide-ranging studies one of the major decisions taken was to make 1000 ACC officers and all ranks redundant and to amalgamate several of the service-providing Corps under one cap badge. As a result the Royal Logistic Corps was born on 5th April 1993 and the Army Catering Corps was amalgamated into it with the Postal and Courier Service of the Royal Engineers, the Royal Corps of Transport, The Royal Ordnance Corps and the Royal Pioneer Corps. The Royal Logistic Corps Cap badge incorporates one element of each of the forming Corp’s badges, including the motto of the Army Catering Corps “We Sustain”.  

The Army Catering Corps has therefore had a very short history, but the training and employment of cooks in the Army is still managed by professional military caterers. The Army School of Catering still exists and is still a Centre of Excellence, which is a model to many similar organisations. Soldiers passing through the Defence Food Services School at St Omer Barracks, as it is now called, leave with National Vocational Qualifications and can build their portfolios during the whole of their career. RLC Chefs are still serving with distinction in all British regiments in all theatres of operation, just as their predecessors did all those years ago. Importantly, the Corps members past and present still gather annually in different parts of the country to share thoughts, words and deeds, through the Army Catering Corps Association and its satellites. 

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