The Adjutant General's Corps is a corps in the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

responsible for many of its general administrative services, named for the

Adjutant-General to the Forces The Adjutant-General to the Forces, commonly just referred to as the Adjutant-General (AG), was for just over 250 years one of the most senior officers in the British Army. The AG was latterly responsible for developing the Army's personnel polic ...

(now the

Commander Home Command Commander (commonly abbreviated as Cmdr.) is a common naval officer rank. Commander is also used as a rank or title in other formal organizations, including several police forces. In several countries this naval rank is termed frigate captain. ...

). As of 2002, the AGC had a staff of 7,000 people.

History

The corps was formed on 6 April 1992 through the amalgamation of several separate services: *

Army Legal Corps The Army Legal Services Branch (ALS) is a branch of the Adjutant-General's Corps (AGC) in the British Army. Before 1992, the branch existed as the independent Army Legal Corps (ALC). History Many of the functions of the ALS were once carried ou ...

Corps of Royal Military Police The Royal Military Police (RMP) is the corps of the British Army responsible for the policing of army service personnel, and for providing a military police presence both in the UK and while service personnel are deployed overseas on operations ...

Military Provost Staff Corps The Military Provost Staff are the Army's specialists in custody and detention, providing advice inspection and surety within custodial establishments. The MPS form part of the Adjutant General's Corps and are based at the Military Corrective Tr ...

Royal Army Educational Corps The Royal Army Educational Corps (RAEC) was a corps of the British Army tasked with educating and instructing personnel in a diverse range of skills. On 6 April 1992 it became the Educational and Training Services Branch (ETS) of the Adjutant Gene ...

Royal Army Pay Corps The Royal Army Pay Corps (RAPC) was the corps of the British Army responsible for administering all financial matters. It was amalgamated into the Adjutant General's Corps in 1992. History The first "paymasters" have existed in the army before t ...

Women's Royal Army Corps The Women's Royal Army Corps (WRAC; sometimes pronounced acronymically as , a term unpopular with its members) was the corps to which all women in the British Army belonged from 1949 to 1992, except medical, dental and veterinary officers and cha ...

Staff clerk A staff clerk is a professional specialist clerk in the British Army who is a member of an administrative corps, as opposed to a unit clerk, who is a member of the corps or regiment in which he or she works and is trained first and foremost in the ...

s from the

Royal Army Ordnance Corps The Royal Army Ordnance Corps (RAOC) was a corps of the British Army. At its renaming as a Royal Corps in 1918 it was both a supply and repair corps. In the supply area it had responsibility for weapons, armoured vehicles and other military equip ...

* Clerks from the

Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers The Corps of Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME ) is a corps of the British Army that maintains the equipment that the Army uses. The corps is described as the "British Army's Professional Engineers". History Prior to REME's for ...

. In October 2022, to celebrate the Corps' 30th anniversary, a parade was held in

Winchester Winchester is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs Nation ...

, in the presence of

The Duchess of Gloucester Duke of Gloucester () is a British royal title (after Gloucester), often conferred on one of the sons of the reigning monarch. The first four creations were in the Peerage of England and the last in the Peerage of the United Kingdom; the curren ...

, Deputy Colonel in Chief.

Organisation

The AGC is organised into the following branches:

Staff & Personnel Support (SPS) Branch

The SPS branch provides specialist HR, Finance, Accounting and ICT support to the British Army, during peacetime and on operations. Its personnel serve alongside and administer every unit in the British Army. The branch also provides clerical support to headquarters at all levels including various departments of the MOD Head Office in

Whitehall Whitehall is a road and area in the City of Westminster, Central London. The road forms the first part of the A roads in Zone 3 of the Great Britain numbering scheme, A3212 road from Trafalgar Square to Chelsea, London, Chelsea. It is the main ...

and the Permanent Joint Headquarters (PJHQ) at Northwood working alongside counterparts in the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

and

RAF The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

, as well as in divisional and brigade headquarters and at unit and sub-unit level through Land Forces. In addition to HR, administrative and clerical support, the SPS Branch also maintains the Army Welfare Service, where its small cohort of Army Welfare Workers - trained social and occupational welfare specialists - provide therapeutic support to Army personnel and their families. In 2011,

Gurkha The Gurkhas or Gorkhas (), with endonym Gorkhali ), are soldiers native to the Indian Subcontinent, chiefly residing within Nepal and some parts of Northeast India. The Gurkha units are composed of Nepalis and Indian Gorkhas and are recruit ...

clerks and administrative personnel who, up to that point, had served under the

Royal Gurkha Rifles The Royal Gurkha Rifles (RGR) is a rifle regiment of the British Army, forming part of the Brigade of Gurkhas. Unlike other regiments in the British Army, RGR soldiers are recruited from Nepal, which is neither a dependent territory of the Unite ...

cap badge, were brought into a single unit titled the Gurkha Staff and Personnel Support Company (GSPS Coy). Following the traditions of the

Queen's Gurkha Engineers The 36 Engineer Regiment is a regiment of the Corps of Royal Engineers within the British Army. The regiment trace their history back to before World War II as 36 Army Engineer Regiment. The regiment today is a general support engineer regiment pr ...

Queen's Gurkha Signals The Queen's Gurkha Signals (QG SIGNALS) is a regular unit of Royal Corps of Signals, one of the combat support arms of British Army. Together with the Queen's Gurkha Engineers, the Queen's Own Gurkha Logistic Regiment, the Royal Gurkha Rifles, and ...

and the

Queen's Own Gurkha Logistic Regiment The Queen's Own Gurkha Logistic Regiment, also known as 10 The Queen's Own Gurkha Logistic Regiment or 10 QOGLR, is a regiment of the British Army's Royal Logistic Corps. History The regiment was created on 5 April 2001. It was formed as a mer ...

, the GSPS Coy has a cap badge that combines elements of both its parent corps (the AGC) and the

Brigade of Gurkhas The Brigade of Gurkhas is the collective name which refers to all the units in the British Army that are composed of Nepalese Gurkha soldiers. The brigade draws its heritage from Gurkha units that originally served in the British Indian Army ...

, of which it is a constituent alongside the other Gurkha units in the British Army.

Provost (AGC Pro) Branch

The AGC Pro unifies two former services which, while no longer independent, retain their identities and

cap badge A cap badge, also known as head badge or hat badge, is a badge worn on uniform headgear and distinguishes the wearer's nationality and/or organisation. The wearing of cap badges is a convention commonly found among military and police forces, as w ...

s. The

Royal Military Police The Royal Military Police (RMP) is the corps of the British Army responsible for the policing of army service personnel, and for providing a military police presence both in the UK and while service personnel are deployed overseas on operation ...

(RMP) is the Army's police force, while the

Military Provost Staff The Military Provost Staff are the Army's specialists in custody and detention, providing advice inspection and surety within custodial establishments. The MPS form part of the Adjutant General's Corps and are based at the Military Corrective Tra ...

(MPS) provides guards for military prisons. The newly formed

Military Provost Guard Service The Military Provost Guard Service (MPGS) is responsible for maintaining physical security at British Armed Forces locations throughout Great Britain. It is one of three constituent units of the Adjutant General's Corps Provost Branch (the other ...

(MPGS) is also part of this branch.

Educational Training and Services Branch

The

ETS ETS or ets may refer to: Climate change, environment and economy * Emissions trading scheme ** European Union Emission Trading Scheme Organisations * European Thermoelectric Society * Evangelical Theological Society Education * École de techno ...

Branch has the responsibilities of the former Royal Army Educational Corps, it is an all officer branch with around 400 serving members. In 2006 the former RAEC cap badge of a 'fluted flambeau with five flames, with crown and scroll' was reintroduced, with 'ETS' replacing 'R.A.E.C.' on the scroll.

Army Legal Services

The

ALS Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neuron disease (MND) or Lou Gehrig's disease, is a neurodegenerative disease that results in the progressive loss of motor neurons that control voluntary muscles. ALS is the most com ...

Branch provides legal advice to all levels of the Army. It retains the cap badge of the former Army Legal Corps. Prior to its amalgamation into the AGC, it was an independent corps in its own right. Its personnel are all qualified lawyers and commissioned officers.

CRHQ

Almost all corps of the

contain a CRHQ (Central Reserve Headquarters) which oversee training for the corps along with controlling specialist units and formations. The Adjutant General's Corps currently maintains two specialist pools: * CRHQ Adjutant General's Corps Educational Training and Services Specialist Pool * CRHQ Adjutant General's Corps Staff and Personnel Support Specialist Pool

Museum of the Adjutant General's Corps

The

Museum of the Adjutant General's Corps The Adjutant General's Corps Museum, also known as The AGC Museum is a visitor attraction at Peninsula Barracks in Winchester. It displays the history of the Adjutant General's Corps and its antecedents through objects, text, photographs, and d ...

is based at

Peninsula Barracks The Peninsula Barracks are a group of military buildings in Winchester, Hampshire. History The barracks, which were originally known as the Upper Barracks, Winchester, were built in the early 20th century on the site of King's House, Winchester ...

. It is one of several

regimental museum In countries whose armies are organised on a regimental basis, such as the British Army, army of the United Kingdom, a regimental museum is a :Military and war museums, military museum dedicated to the history of a specific army regiment. List of ...

s that are part of

Winchester's Military Museums Winchester's Military Museums are a group of six independent and related regimental museums in Peninsula Barracks and Lower Barracks in Winchester, Hampshire. The museums are: * HorsePower: The Museum of the King's Royal Hussars * Lower Barracks ...

References

External links

Official site

AGC (SPS Branch)

AGC (ETS Branch)

AGC Museum

AGC Regimental Association

{{The British Army British administrative corps Legal occupations in the military Military units and formations established in 1992 1992 establishments in the United Kingdom