War Office
The offices of master and clerk of the Ordnance first appeared early in the fifteenth century
Around them an Ordnance Office was gradually established at the Tower of London, where from 1429 there was also a separate Armoury Office.
1543 A reform of the Ordnance Office added the offices of the lieutenant of the Ordnance, surveyor, storekeeper and clerk of deliveries.
From the early seventeenth century the titles of master general and lieutenant general began to replace those of master and lieutenant.
1671 the Armoury Office was abolished and its duties transferred to the Ordnance Office.
1855 The Ordnance Office became the War Department
1857 Renamed the War Office
1964 Became the Ministry of Defence
1855 the War Office took over from the Board of Ordnance responsibility for establishments engaged in research and development of munitions. They were made the responsibility of the succession of Artillery and Ordnance Departments.
1904 The Department of the Master General of the Ordnance took responsibility for these departments.
WWI a number of new research establishments were created, mainly under the Ministry of Munitions, which also took over those previously under War Office control.
After the war responsibility for armaments research returned to the War Office, together with control of its former research establishments and several of the new ones created under the Ministry of Munitions.
1939 Responsibility for these establishments passed to the Ministry of Supply
1959 Responsibility for these establishments was transferred to the master general of the Ordnance at the War Office, except for those establishments which passed to the Ministry of Aviation.
Responsibility for research and development into chemical warfare agents and equipment moved from the Ministry of Munitions to the War Office after the First World War. A Chemical Warfare Research Department was established with headquarters in London, and Chemical Defence Experimental Stations (later Establishments) at Porton and Sutton Oak. By 1939, when responsibility for what was now called the Chemical Defence Research Department passed to the Ministry of Supply, its scope had extended to include biological as well as chemical agents and equipment. In 1959 it returned to the War Office.
The Military Operational Research Unit originated during the Second World War within the Ministry of Supply. When this was transferred to the control of the War Office in 1946 it was renamed the Army Operational Research Group. Until 1954 it was concerned mostly with equipment research, but then began work on war-gaming and other operational analysis techniques which steadily increased in importance. It created several overseas groups such as that with the British Army in Germany.
In January 1962 the name was changed to Army Operational Research Establishment (AORE). Following the creation of a unified Ministry of Defence, a tri-service operational research organisation was established: the Defence Operational Research Establishment (DOAE) which was formed in 1965, and it absorbed the Army Operational Research Establishment based at West Byfleet.
See Also
Sources of Information
- [1] National Archives