The Adjutant General's Corps is a corps in the British Army responsible for many of its general administrative services, named for the Adjutant-General to the Forces (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 * Royal Army Pay Corps * Women's Royal Army Corps *

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 * 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 and the Permanent Joint Headquarters (PJHQ) at Northwood working alongside counterparts in the Royal Navy and RAF, 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 clerks and administrative personnel who, up to that point, had served under the Royal Gurkha Rifles 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, Queen's Gurkha Signals and the Queen's Own Gurkha Logistic Regiment, 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 (RMP) is the Army's police force, while the Military Provost Staff (MPS) provides guards for military prisons. The newly formed Military Provost Guard Service (MPGS) is also part of this branch.

Educational Training and Services Branch

The ETS 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 British Army 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 in

. It is one of several regimental museums that are part of Winchester's Military Museums.

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