Quartermaster sergeant

Quartermaster sergeant (QMS) is a class of rank or appointment in some armed forces, especially those of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth, and formerly also in the United States.

Ireland

Quartermaster sergeant () appointments in the Irish Defence Forces include:
*Battalion quartermaster sergeant
*Battery quartermaster sergeant
* Company quartermaster sergeant
* Flight quartermaster sergeant
* Regimental quartermaster sergeant
*Squadron quartermaster sergeant

United Kingdom

A quartermaster sergeant in the British Army and Royal Marines is traditionally a non-commissioned officer or warrant officer who is responsible for supplies or stores. However, this definition is extended to almost any warrant officer class 2 who does not hold a sergeant major appointment, as well as a number of staff sergeant and colour sergeant appointments. In the British Army, quartermaster sergeants are frequently addressed and referred to as "Q". However, infantry company quartermaster sergeants are always addressed by their rank, as "Colour Sergeant" or "Colour", and not their appointment.

Examples of staff sergeant quartermaster sergeant appointments include:
*Battery quartermaster sergeant
* Company quartermaster sergeant
*Squadron quartermaster sergeant

Examples of warrant officer class 2 quartermaster sergeant appointments include:
*Artificer quartermaster sergeant
*Orderly room quartermaster sergeant
*Quartermaster sergeant instructor
* Regimental quartermaster sergeant
*Staff quartermaster sergeant
*Technical quartermaster sergeant

In the Household Cavalry, which does not use the term "sergeant", the designation is replaced with quartermaster corporal (QMC), as in squadron quartermaster corporal and regimental quartermaster corporal.

In the Royal Marines, quartermaster sergeant was an actual rank between colour sergeant and regimental sergeant major (and equivalent to warrant officer class II in the Army) until the Royal Marines themselves re-adopted the ranks of warrant officer class I and II in 1973 (although the term continued to be used interchangeably for warrant officers class II until at least 1981). Quartermaster sergeants could also hold the appointment of company sergeant major. The equivalent ranks in the Band Service were staff bandmaster and quartermaster sergeant bugler.

United States

Early quartermaster sergeants

In 1776 the Continental Army established the rank of quartermaster sergeant as the second most senior soldier in the non-commissioned headquarters element of an infantry regiment. The regulations by General von Steuben officially gives the duties as:
"The Quartermaster Sergeant assisted the regimental quartermaster, assuming his duties in the quartermaster's absence and supervising the proper loading and transport of the regiment's baggage when on march."

The succeeding U.S. Army kept the rank. When the army formalised chevrons as rank insignia for their non-commissioned officers, quartermaster sergeants were given the insignia of a down-pointed chevron of worsted braid above the elbow of each arm in the same colour as the buttons of the regiment or corps.Institute of Heraldry Although the Continental Marines did not have quartermaster sergeants, the U.S. Marine Corps introduced the rank when it was established, initially having only one quartermaster sergeant who was attached to the corps headquarters (like all NCOs above the rank of sergeant).

American Civil War

The rank was in use by both the Union Army and the Confederate Army during the American Civil War. The rank was below sergeant major and above ordnance sergeant. The same rank insignia was used by both armies. Both armies varied the colour of the stripes by assigning red for artillery, yellow for cavalry, and blue for infantry. Some Confederate militia units varied these colours even further and had other colours; an example being the black stripes used by infantry units from North Carolina.

Each regiment or battalion was assigned a quartermaster sergeant as part of the staff, appointed by the commander from among the regiment's sergeants. Their task was to assist the quartermaster of the regiment with ordering, storing and distributing various equipage