The Production of Clothing in Britain, 1914-1918 Q30770

The Royal Army Clothing Depot was a factory and warehouse providing uniforms and other items of clothing for 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 ...

. It was located in

Grosvenor Road South Tyneside College is a large further education college in South Tyneside in North East England. Its main site is in the town of South Shields. The college offers part-time and full-time courses for young students and adults. It was forme ...

Pimlico Pimlico () is an area of Central London in the City of Westminster, built as a southern extension to neighbouring Belgravia. It is known for its garden squares and distinctive Regency architecture. Pimlico is demarcated to the north by London V ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. Established in the 1850s, it remained in operation until 1932; for much of its history the depot was part of 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 ...

and its precursors. During the early part of the First World War it was headed by Colonel

Harold Stephen Langhorne Brigadier-General Harold Stephen Langhorne (17 September 1866 – 26 June 1932) was an officer in the Royal Army Ordnance Corps of the British army and served in India, Burma, Hong Kong, South Africa and France. Early life He was the son of ...

History

In 1855 the

War Office The War Office was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the new Ministry of Defence (MoD). This article contains text from ...

took responsibility for provision of Army clothing; previously, each individual regiment had been responsible for procuring its uniforms. A storage depot was established, initially within the

Ordnance Depot Ordnance may refer to: Military and defense *Materiel in military logistics, including weapons, ammunition, vehicles, and maintenance tools and equipment. **The military branch responsible for supplying and developing these items, e.g., the Unite ...

at Weedon in Northamptonshire before being relocated to Pimlico in 1859. In 1856 a factory had been built at

Woolwich Woolwich () is a district in southeast London, England, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich. The district's location on the River Thames led to its status as an important naval, military and industrial area; a role that was maintained throu ...

to manufacture uniforms for the

Artillery Artillery is a class of heavy military ranged weapons that launch munitions far beyond the range and power of infantry firearms. Early artillery development focused on the ability to breach defensive walls and fortifications during siege ...

and

Engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...

corps. in 1863 a factory was established in Pimlico (a 70-year lease having been purchased on the site in Grosvenor Road); by the end of the decade the Woolwich factory had closed, with its operations having transferred to Pimlico. From 1870 the establishment at Pimlico (with its departments responsible for storage, manufacture and inspection of army clothing) combined with the Clothing Branch of the War Office to form a new Army Clothing Department (titled the Royal Army Clothing Department from 1887). With its lease coming to an end, the factory at Pimlico closed in 1932, when new systems of clothing procurement for the Army were put into effect.Lt Col H de Watteville CBE, The Royal Army Clothing Department, Journal of the Royal United Services Institution, Volume 77, 1932, pp607-612 Storage provision was moved from Pimlico to the Ordnance Depots at

Didcot Didcot ( ) is a railway town and civil parish in the ceremonial county of Oxfordshire and the historic county of Berkshire. Didcot is south of Oxford, east of Wantage and north west of Reading. The town is noted for its railway heritage, Di ...

and

, and the following year, the Royal Army Clothing Department was abolished.

Dolphin Square Dolphin Square is a block of private apartment, flats with some ground floor business units near the River Thames in Pimlico, Westminster, London built between 1935 in architecture, 1935 and 1937 in architecture, 1937. Until the building of High ...

now stands on the site in Grosvenor Road.

References

{{Reflist Royal Logistic Corps 1932 disestablishments in England