Royal Logistic Corps: History, Cap Badge, Traditions & Collecting Guide

Introduction

The Royal Logistic Corps was formed on 5 April 1993 and is today the largest Corps in the British Army. It provides much of the Army's transport, supply, movement, ammunition, catering, postal and specialist logistic support in barracks and on operations.

Although the title Royal Logistic Corps dates only from 1993, the Corps inherited five distinct service traditions: the Royal Corps of Transport, Royal Army Ordnance Corps, Royal Pioneer Corps, Army Catering Corps and Royal Engineers (Postal & Courier Services). Their histories reach back through the two World Wars and the Victorian Army, and in some cases much further.

The 1993 amalgamation brought transport, supply, ordnance, ammunition, explosive ordnance disposal, pioneer, catering, port, movement-control, Air Despatch, postal and courier functions into one Corps. It was a much broader reorganisation than a simple redesignation of the Royal Corps of Transport.

Since then RLC soldiers have served across the Army's major operational commitments, including Northern Ireland, the Balkans, Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as humanitarian operations and more recent deployments at home and overseas.

Centuries Old and Decades New

The RLC has no single pre-1993 family tree. Its five forming organisations developed along separate institutional lines before they were brought together.

The transport inheritance runs through the Royal Waggon Train, Military Train, Army Service Corps, Royal Army Service Corps and Royal Corps of Transport. The ordnance tradition reaches further back through the Crown's arrangements for weapons, ammunition and military stores, while the Pioneer, Catering and Postal services followed their own histories.

Those separate histories became part of a single Corps in 1993.

The Five Forming Corps

The Royal Corps of Transport

The Royal Corps of Transport supplied much of the RLC's transport and movement inheritance.

Its accepted military transport ancestry included the Royal Waggoners of 1794, the Royal Waggon Corps and Royal Waggon Train, the Crimean-era Land Transport Corps and Military Train, and ultimately the Army Service Corps and Royal Army Service Corps.

The RCT itself had been created in 1965, when the transport functions of the Royal Army Service Corps were combined with transportation and movement-control responsibilities transferred from the Royal Engineers. Its responsibilities included road transport, heavy vehicle movement, ports, maritime operations, military railways, movement control and Air Despatch.

When the RCT disappeared as an independent Corps in 1993, those functions did not disappear with it. They formed a substantial part of the operational backbone of the new RLC.

The Royal Army Ordnance Corps

The Royal Army Ordnance Corps brought another, very different tradition.

Its history was connected with the Crown's arrangements for weapons, ammunition and military stores. RLC historical material traces this strand to at least 1299, when the Keeper of the King's Wardrobe had responsibilities for warlike equipment and military expenditure. The office of Master of Ordnance emerged during the later Middle Ages, while the Board of Ordnance became one of the central organisations concerned with weapons and military stores.

The nineteenth century brought repeated reorganisation. The Army Ordnance Department and Army Ordnance Corps eventually emerged, and on 28 November 1918 the officer and soldier branches were brought together in a single Corps; the title Royal Army Ordnance Corps was in official use by the end of that year.

The RAOC's responsibilities altered over time. In 1942 much of its equipment repair and workshop organisation passed into the newly formed Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers. In 1965, however, the RAOC gained major additional supply responsibilities from the RASC, including petroleum and rations.

By the final decades of its existence the RAOC combined supply and ordnance work with specialist ammunition and bomb-disposal responsibilities. Its experience in Northern Ireland made explosive ordnance disposal one of the most demanding parts of the Corps' operational history.

The RAOC ceased to exist as a separate Corps in April 1993, its principal logistic functions passing into the RLC.

The Royal Pioneer Corps

The Royal Pioneer Corps contributed the Army's organised pioneer and labour tradition.

Military pioneers long pre-dated the Corps itself, but the direct twentieth-century lineage is normally traced through the Labour Corps of 1917.

At the outbreak of the Second World War the Auxiliary Military Pioneer Corps was created. It became the Pioneer Corps in 1940 and received the Royal prefix in 1946 in recognition of its wartime service.

Pioneers performed an extraordinary range of essential work: handling stores, constructing and maintaining facilities, clearing battlefields, supporting ports, railways and airfields and supplying labour wherever an army required it. Such work was sometimes dismissed as unglamorous, but armies cannot function without it.

The crossed axes carried on the RLC badge preserve the Royal Pioneer Corps' place among the five forming organisations.

The Army Catering Corps

The professionalisation of Army catering produced the fourth forming Corps.

The Army Catering Corps was created on 22 March 1941 under the control of the Royal Army Service Corps. Wartime experience had made increasingly obvious the military importance of properly trained cooks, organised catering and nutritionally adequate food.

The ACC subsequently developed its own professional structure and became an independent Corps on 1 January 1965.

Although its separate existence was comparatively short, one of its most important contributions to the new Corps survives in plain sight. The words beneath the RLC cap badge are the former Army Catering Corps motto:

WE SUSTAIN.

The motto was retained by the Royal Logistic Corps on its formation in 1993.

Royal Engineers (Postal & Courier Services)

The fifth forming element came from the Corps of Royal Engineers. The Royal Engineers as a whole did not join the RLC; the transfer concerned their specialist postal and courier organisation.

The British Army's first permanent military postal corps was the Army Post Office Corps, raised in 1882. In 1913 it became the Royal Engineers (Postal Section).

Its successors carried mail in war and peace, developed specialist systems for deployed forces and assumed responsibility for classified courier work. In 1979 the service was restyled Royal Engineers (Postal & Courier Services), usually abbreviated RE(PCS).

On 5 April 1993 RE(PCS) became one of the forming elements of the Royal Logistic Corps.

5 April 1993: Formation of the Royal Logistic Corps

The Royal Logistic Corps formally came into existence on 5 April 1993 as part of the post-Cold War Army restructuring associated with Options for Change.

The new Corps combined the principal transport, supply, ordnance, pioneer, catering and postal-and-courier functions of its five forming organisations. For the Army, this placed much of the supply-and-distribution chain under one cap badge at a time when the force itself was being reduced and reorganised.

The formation was marked at Deepcut. Contemporary Army film records HRH The Princess Royal inspecting the new Corps on 5 April and taking up the appointment of Colonel-in-Chief.

Not every soldier from the five antecedent organisations transferred into the RLC. The wider restructuring also created the Adjutant General's Corps, and clerical personnel from several of the old corps moved there instead.

What the Royal Logistic Corps Actually Does

Military logistics in the RLC sense extends well beyond road transport. The Corps moves people and equipment, controls military movement, manages stores and fuel, handles ammunition, operates ports and maritime craft, supports Air Despatch, provides catering and postal services, and fields specialist explosive-ordnance personnel.

Its trades have included drivers, movement controllers, supply specialists, ammunition technicians, petroleum operators, chefs, port operators, mariners, marine engineers, Air Despatchers and Postal & Courier Operators. Army photographers also serve within the Royal Logistic Corps, providing operational imagery and Combat Camera capability.

Some of this work is carried out from major depots and logistic bases; some is performed alongside fighting formations and in places where the distinction between front line and support area has little practical meaning.

The Balkans

The new Corps was almost immediately operating in a strategic environment very different from the Cold War for which many of its forming units had originally been organised.

British forces served throughout the conflicts and peace-support operations in the former Yugoslavia, including Bosnia and Herzegovina and later Kosovo.

For the RLC these deployments demanded the movement and sustainment of forces over extended lines of communication, often through damaged infrastructure and politically unstable territory. Transport, movement control, supply, catering, postal support and ammunition specialists all had work to do.

In Kosovo, RLC explosive-ordnance personnel were also involved in dealing with weapons, explosives and unexploded ordnance left in the wake of the conflict.

Northern Ireland

The RLC also inherited commitments in Northern Ireland during the final period of Operation BANNER.

Its role there reflected both RCT and RAOC experience. Transport and supply continued, while the ordnance inheritance included the highly specialised and dangerous work associated with ammunition and explosive ordnance disposal.

Iraq — Operation TELIC

British operations in Iraq were conducted under Operation TELIC, which began in March 2003. The main British combat force was drawn down in July 2009, and Operation TELIC concluded in May 2011. Throughout the campaign the RLC was responsible for moving and sustaining forces over long supply lines into southern Iraq.

Large quantities of ammunition, fuel, water, food, engineering stores, spares and other equipment had to be moved into the Gulf, distributed forward and continually replenished. Vehicles required fuel; units required ammunition; temporary bases had to be supplied; and equipment moved as operations changed.

RLC drivers and distribution specialists ran logistic convoys. Movement-control personnel coordinated transport. Supply specialists managed stocks. Chefs fed deployed forces. Ammunition specialists and explosive-ordnance personnel dealt with conventional munitions and the increasing threat from improvised explosive devices.

Postal and courier personnel maintained another less visible but important connection between deployed soldiers and home.

TELIC employed the full range of Corps functions, from transport and movement control to supply, catering, ammunition support and explosive ordnance disposal.

Afghanistan — VERITAS, HERRICK and TORAL

British operations in Afghanistan began under Operation VERITAS after the intervention of 2001. Operation HERRICK became the principal British operational designation during the Helmand campaign from 2006 through late 2014. It was followed by Operation TORAL, the post-combat mission that continued until the final British withdrawal in August 2021. RLC units and specialists supported these successive commitments through transport, supply, catering, movement, ammunition and explosive-ordnance roles.

Camp Bastion became the principal British logistic hub in Helmand Province. At its height it supported a vast military and civilian population and a network of forward locations.

RLC personnel there performed transport, supply, catering, postal, explosive-ordnance and supply-chain roles. Combat Logistic Patrols carried essential supplies forward from Bastion, sometimes using convoys running to scores of vehicles and stretching for considerable distances.

Those convoys were not civilian-style haulage operations. They moved through an environment in which routes might be mined or attacked and in which every journey required planning, protection and coordination.

The eventual withdrawal presented the reverse problem. Years of accumulated vehicles, equipment and stores had to be inspected, cleaned, accounted for, returned, disposed of or transferred in a controlled manner. When Camp Bastion was handed over to Afghan forces on 26 October 2014, the process represented a logistic undertaking on almost the same scale as building and sustaining the base had done.

Operation GRITROCK and the Ebola Crisis

During the Ebola epidemic in West Africa, British forces deployed to Sierra Leone under Operation GRITROCK.

RLC personnel were heavily involved in medical supply and transport. The work demanded cooperation not only with other military organisations but with government departments, international agencies and non-governmental organisations.

An RLC account from the operation records a convoy movement involving approximately 140 vehicles from Freetown Harbour, illustrating the scale at which apparently straightforward movements could have to be organised.

Recent Commitments

RLC Regular and Reserve personnel supported the United Kingdom's response to the COVID-19 pandemic under Operation RESCRIPT. RLC personnel also supported the 2021 evacuation from Afghanistan under Operation PITTING and have contributed to Operation INTERFLEX, the UK-led programme training Ukrainian personnel.

These commitments sit alongside continuing RLC support to British forces overseas, NATO deployments, exercises and readiness activity.

The Royal Logistic Corps Cap Badge

The RLC cap badge was designed for the new Corps in 1993. Contemporary Army material identifies the designer as Sergeant R. R. MacNeilage of the Royal Army Ordnance Corps.

Its principal elements were deliberately drawn from the five forming organisations. The eight-pointed star and laurel wreath came from the Royal Corps of Transport; the Garter represented the Royal Engineers postal and courier inheritance; the crossed axes came from the Royal Pioneer Corps; the central shield carries the Arms of the Board of Ordnance through the Royal Army Ordnance Corps; and the scroll bears WE SUSTAIN, inherited from the Army Catering Corps.

The Board of Ordnance Shield

The shield in the centre of the RLC badge is frequently misunderstood.

It shows the historic device associated with the Board of Ordnance: three field guns with three round shot or cannonballs above them.

A persistent soldiers' story claims that the apparently oversized cannonballs represent ammunition of the wrong calibre supplied during the Crimean War, supposedly preserved thereafter as a permanent “mark of shame”. It is a good barrack-room story but poor history.

The device considerably predates the Crimean War. Material held by the RLC Museum shows the cannon-and-ball motif in use in the early eighteenth century, and it formed the central part of the Arms granted to the Board of Ordnance in 1823.

The exaggerated size of the round shot is a practical heraldic device. If represented in strict proportion to the guns, the balls would become almost invisible when the design was reduced to the size of a badge.

The RLC therefore carries the Board of Ordnance shield because of the RAOC inheritance, not as a memorial to a Victorian ammunition error.

Honi Soit Qui Mal Y Pense Is Not the RLC Motto

Around the central shield is the Garter bearing:

HONI SOIT QUI MAL Y PENSE

The words belong to the Order of the Garter and are conventionally translated along the lines of “Shame on him who thinks evil of it”.

They are not the motto of the Royal Logistic Corps.

The Corps motto is the much simpler:

WE SUSTAIN.

Confusing the two is common because the Garter motto is more prominent around the centre of the badge, but historically they perform entirely different functions.

Queen's Crown and King's Crown RLC Badges

The RLC differs from the Royal Corps of Transport in an important respect.

The RCT existed only during the reign of Queen Elizabeth II. The RLC, by contrast, was formed in 1993 and remains in existence. It has therefore served under two monarchs.

From the Corps' formation until the death of Queen Elizabeth II on 8 September 2022, the RLC badge was surmounted by the crown form used on military badges during her reign, closely associated with St Edward's Crown.

Following the accession of King Charles III, a new royal cypher and Tudor Crown representation were approved. In March 2023 the British Armed Forces unveiled the new cap-badge treatments for the present reign.

The change was never intended to happen across every uniform overnight. The College of Arms made clear from the beginning that new royal insignia would be introduced gradually as uniforms and equipment required replacement.

A Queen's Crown RLC badge is the service-period pattern associated with the Corps under Queen Elizabeth II. The Tudor-Crown rendering is the approved form for the reign of King Charles III, with its introduction across uniforms and equipment taking place progressively rather than on a single date.

The RLC badge does not contain a central Royal Cypher, so the principal visible regnal alteration is the form of the Crown itself.

Corps Identity and Traditions

We Sustain

The RLC motto is:

WE SUSTAIN.

The motto came directly from the Army Catering Corps and was adopted by the new Corps in 1993.

On Parade

The RLC's regimental march is On Parade, composed by Albert Elms.

The Corps slow march is Lion, Sword and Crown, composed by Craig Bywater.

Dark Blue, Gold and Scarlet

The familiar RLC stable-belt colours are dark blue, gold and scarlet.

They have become one of the most immediately recognisable visual expressions of Corps identity and are widely used in RLC-associated displays and material.

The Princess Royal

HRH The Princess Royal has been associated with the Corps from its first day.

Army film records her presence at Deepcut on 5 April 1993, where she took up the appointment of Colonel-in-Chief of the newly formed RLC.

She continues to hold that appointment and has remained closely associated with major Corps occasions, including the RLC's thirtieth-anniversary events in Winchester in 2023.

Five Victoria Crosses Traditionally Recognised in RLC History

RLC historical material traditionally recognises five Victoria Cross recipients within the Corps' inherited transport and service lineage. All five awards pre-date the formation of the RLC and were earned in predecessor organisations.

Michael Murphy VC — Military Train, 1858

Farrier Michael Murphy of the 2nd Battalion Military Train received the Victoria Cross for his actions near Azamgarh on 15 April 1858 during the Indian Rebellion.

Lieutenant Hamilton of the 3rd Sikh Cavalry had been wounded, unhorsed and surrounded. Murphy went to his assistance, fought off attackers and, although severely wounded himself, remained beside Hamilton until help arrived.

Murphy's award belongs to the nineteenth-century transport-service ancestry which subsequently passed through the Army Service Corps and RASC into the RCT and RLC traditions.

Murphy's Victoria Cross was formally forfeited after a civilian theft conviction in 1872. He nevertheless remains on the official roll of VC recipients; King George V later made clear that he did not favour forfeiture of the decoration.

Samuel Morley VC — Military Train, 1858

Private Samuel Morley, also of the 2nd Battalion Military Train, received the VC for the same action on 15 April 1858.

Morley's horse had been shot from beneath him. Seeing Lieutenant Hamilton on the ground, he went forward on foot and fought alongside Murphy until further assistance reached them.

Murphy and Morley received separate awards for the same action, each based on the conduct recorded in his own citation.

James Langley Dalton VC — Rorke's Drift, 1879

James Langley Dalton was an Acting Assistant Commissary in the Commissariat and Transport Department during the Anglo-Zulu War.

At Rorke's Drift on 22–23 January 1879, Dalton played a substantial part in organising the defence of the post. During the fighting he was among those who met the first Zulu attack near the hospital and continued fighting after being severely wounded.

His VC citation specifically referred to his energy in the defence, his cool courage and his conduct during the attack.

Dalton served neither the RCT nor the RLC. His place in RLC history comes through the commissariat and transport ancestry inherited by the later service corps.

Alfred Cecil Herring VC — Army Service Corps, 1918

Temporary Second Lieutenant Alfred Cecil Herring was an Army Service Corps officer attached to the 6th Battalion, Northamptonshire Regiment during the German spring offensive of 1918.

On 23–24 March 1918, after his position had become isolated, Herring counter-attacked, retook it and captured twenty prisoners and six machine guns. He and his men then resisted repeated attacks.

His VC citation credited his leadership with holding up the German advance for approximately eleven hours at a critical stage of the battle.

Richard George Masters VC — Army Service Corps, 1918

Private Richard George Masters served in the Army Service Corps (Motor Transport) and was attached to 141st Field Ambulance.

On 9 April 1918, with communications disrupted by a German attack and wounded men unable to be evacuated, Masters volunteered to take an ambulance along a road considered impassable.

He succeeded and then made repeated journeys under artillery and machine-gun fire, at one point also being attacked from the air, bringing wounded men to safety.

The award was made to a soldier of the Army Service Corps. The Corps did not receive its Royal prefix until later in 1918.

Together, Murphy, Morley, Dalton, Herring and Masters form the five Victoria Cross recipients traditionally recognised in the RLC's transport and service heritage.

George Crosses of the Royal Logistic Corps

Three George Crosses have been awarded to men serving under the title Royal Logistic Corps: Captain Peter Norton, Staff Sergeant Olaf Schmid and Staff Sergeant Kim Hughes, all for explosive-ordnance work in Iraq or Afghanistan. The Corps also inherits earlier George Cross history through its predecessor organisations.

Captain Peter Norton GC — Iraq, 2005

Captain Peter Allen Norton, an Ammunition Technical Officer serving with the Royal Logistic Corps, was second-in-command of the Combined Explosives Exploitation Cell in Baghdad. His George Cross recognised a series of actions on 30 April, 9 May, 23 June and 24 July 2005, during which he repeatedly dealt with improvised explosive devices and post-blast scenes under extreme danger.

The final action took place in the Al Bayaa district on 24 July 2005, after an American patrol had been struck by a large command-initiated device. Norton was gravely wounded by a secondary explosion but remained conscious, directed his team and controlled movement around the scene despite his injuries.

Staff Sergeant Olaf Schmid GC — Afghanistan, 2009

Staff Sergeant Olaf Sean George Schmid of 11 Explosive Ordnance Disposal Regiment RLC served as a High Threat IEDD operator in Helmand in 2009. Over the course of his tour he repeatedly dealt with improvised explosive devices at close range, often without the protection or remote equipment available in less constrained circumstances.

He was killed on 31 October 2009 while dealing with a complex device near Forward Operating Base Jackson. His George Cross was awarded posthumously for sustained courage across the tour rather than for a single isolated act.

Staff Sergeant Kim Hughes GC — Afghanistan, 2009

Staff Sergeant Kim Spencer Hughes, also an RLC High Threat IEDD operator, received the George Cross for his actions near Sangin on 16 August 2009. After soldiers were caught in an IED minefield, Hughes worked forward without specialist protective clothing in order to reach the casualties quickly, manually clearing a route and dealing with several devices.

These awards belong to the operational history of the Royal Logistic Corps itself. They sit alongside the Corps' inherited Victoria Cross tradition and are central to the modern history of RLC ammunition and explosive-ordnance specialists.

Battle Honours and Inherited Campaign Heritage

The RLC's earliest inherited Battle Honours come through the transport lineage. The Royal Waggon Train carried Peninsula and Waterloo; the later Military Train added Lucknow, Taku Forts and Pekin. After 1860, Battle Honours were no longer awarded to this service-corps lineage.

These are antecedent honours. Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan belong instead to the operational history of the Royal Logistic Corps itself.

The Royal Logistic Corps Today

The RLC remains the largest Corps in the British Army.

Its organisation has continued to change with the Army, but the central task remains movement and sustainment. Modern logistic planning now has to account for digital supply systems, precision weapons, dispersed formations and the vulnerability of depots, routes and communication networks to deliberate attack.

The Corps' home is now at Worthy Down near Winchester. The new facilities there were formally opened by The Princess Royal in 2021, and the Royal Logistic Corps Museum is also located at Worthy Down.

Worthy Down now brings together the Corps' headquarters, training establishment and museum.

Conclusion

The Royal Logistic Corps dates from 5 April 1993, but the work embodied in the Corps is far older. Its five forming organisations brought together transport, ordnance, pioneer, catering and postal traditions that had developed separately over generations of British Army service.

Since 1993 the RLC has acquired an operational history of its own, from the Balkans and Northern Ireland to Operation TELIC in Iraq and the successive VERITAS, HERRICK and TORAL commitments in Afghanistan. The George Crosses awarded to Peter Norton, Olaf Schmid and Kim Hughes belong to that modern record, alongside the five Victoria Crosses inherited through the Corps' antecedents.

The cap badge makes that inheritance visible: RCT star and wreath, Royal Engineers Garter, Pioneer axes, Board of Ordnance shield and the Army Catering Corps motto WE SUSTAIN. More than three decades after the amalgamation, those once separate traditions remain identifiable within one Corps.

Collecting and Identifying Royal Logistic Corps Insignia

Start With the Date

An RLC badge cannot pre-date 5 April 1993.

Badges claimed to be RLC but attributed to earlier campaigns should therefore be treated with caution. Before 1993 the relevant soldier would have belonged to one of the forming corps or another Army organisation.

Queen's Crown RLC

A Queen's Crown RLC badge is entirely correct for service during the reign of Queen Elizabeth II.

It represents the original RLC badge introduced when the Corps was formed in 1993 and remained the normal regnal pattern until the change of reign in 2022.

King's Crown RLC

The Tudor Crown form belongs to the reign of King Charles III.

The Armed Forces unveiled revised cap-badge treatments in 2023, but their introduction has been gradual. The continued use of earlier badges for a period after the accession should therefore not automatically be treated as anomalous.

Do Not Date a Badge From the Crown Alone

The Crown is important, but serious identification also requires attention to construction, fittings, manufacture, rank pattern and provenance.

Official officer and soldier patterns may differ in finish and construction, and commemorative reproductions should not be confused with military-issued badges.

Check the Five Principal Devices

A correct RLC badge brings together the star and wreath, crossed axes, Garter, Board of Ordnance shield and WE SUSTAIN scroll beneath the Royal Crown.

Understanding where those elements came from is often more useful than simply memorising the overall shape of the badge.

Frequently Asked Questions

When was the Royal Logistic Corps formed?

The Royal Logistic Corps was formed on 5 April 1993.

Which corps formed the RLC?

The five forming organisations were the Royal Corps of Transport, Royal Army Ordnance Corps, Royal Pioneer Corps, Army Catering Corps and Royal Engineers (Postal & Courier Services).

Is the Royal Logistic Corps just the Royal Corps of Transport renamed?

No. The RCT was one of five forming organisations. The RLC combined transport with supply, ordnance, pioneer, catering and postal-and-courier traditions.

What is the Royal Logistic Corps motto?

We Sustain. The motto was inherited from the Army Catering Corps.

What does Honi Soit Qui Mal Y Pense mean?

It is the motto of the Order of the Garter, usually translated approximately as “Shame on him who thinks evil of it”. It appears on the Garter within the RLC badge but is not the Corps motto.

Why are there axes on the RLC cap badge?

The crossed axes represent the Royal Pioneer Corps, one of the five forming corps.

What does the shield in the centre of the RLC badge represent?

It bears the historic Arms of the Board of Ordnance, inherited through the Royal Army Ordnance Corps.

Do the large cannonballs on the shield commemorate the wrong ammunition being supplied in the Crimean War?

No. That is a well-known military myth. The cannon-and-ball device predates the Crimean War by many decades. The large balls are a feature of the heraldic design rather than a punishment for an ammunition error.

How many Victoria Crosses are associated with RLC history?

The five Victoria Cross recipients traditionally recognised in RLC history are Michael Murphy, Samuel Morley, James Langley Dalton, Alfred Cecil Herring and Richard George Masters.

Did any of the five win the Victoria Cross while serving in the Royal Logistic Corps?

No. All five awards pre-date the formation of the RLC in 1993 and were earned in predecessor organisations.

Which RLC soldiers have received the George Cross?

The three George Crosses awarded to men serving under the Royal Logistic Corps title are Captain Peter Norton, Staff Sergeant Olaf Schmid and Staff Sergeant Kim Hughes, recognised for explosive-ordnance work in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Can an original RLC badge have a Queen's Crown?

Yes. The RLC was formed in 1993 during the reign of Queen Elizabeth II. Queen's Crown badges represent the original service-period RLC pattern.

Can an RLC badge have a King's Crown?

Yes. The RLC remains in service during the reign of King Charles III, and the Armed Forces introduced Tudor-Crown badge treatments for the new reign from 2023.

What is the RLC march?

The regimental march is On Parade by Albert Elms. The slow march is Lion, Sword and Crown by Craig Bywater.

What colours are associated with the RLC stable belt?

Dark blue, gold and scarlet.

Who is Colonel-in-Chief of the Royal Logistic Corps?

HRH The Princess Royal, who took up the appointment when the Corps was formed in 1993.

Where is the Royal Logistic Corps Museum?

The Royal Logistic Corps Museum is at Worthy Down near Winchester, Hampshire.

Museums and Archives

The principal museum for the RLC and its forming corps is the Royal Logistic Corps Museum at Worthy Down.

Its collections cover the Royal Corps of Transport and RASC, the Royal Army Ordnance Corps, Royal Pioneer Corps, Army Catering Corps, postal and courier heritage and the Royal Logistic Corps itself.

Its collections allow the five forming organisations to be studied both separately and within the history of the Corps created in 1993.

The National Army Museum also holds significant RLC and forming-corps material, including badges, photographs, uniforms and campaign records.

The Imperial War Museums hold contemporary film of the RLC's formation ceremony at Deepcut on 5 April 1993, while the London Gazette remains an essential primary source for historic gallantry awards.

Further Reading

Selected authoritative sources used for this article:

• Royal Logistic Corps Museum — The RLC
• National Army Museum — Royal Logistic Corps
• National Army Museum — Royal Logistic Corps Cap Badge
• The Royal Logistic Corps — Forming Corps
• College of Arms — New Armed Forces Cap Badges, 2023
• Forces News / RLC Museum — Board of Ordnance 'Mark of Shame' myth

View full research source list

• RASC & RCT Association — RCT History
• Royal Logistic Corps — RAOC History
• Royal Logistic Corps — Royal Pioneer Corps
• Royal Logistic Corps — Army Catering Corps History
• Royal Logistic Corps — Royal Engineers Postal and Courier Services
• College of Arms — Royal Cypher of King Charles III
• Ministry of Defence — Operation TELIC, VERITAS, HERRICK and TORAL chronology
• British Army — Royal Logistic Corps operations and training
• Soldier Magazine — RLC cap badge design and forming-corps devices
• Victoria Cross and George Cross Association — Michael Murphy VC
• Victoria Cross and George Cross Association — Samuel Morley VC
• Victoria Cross and George Cross Association — James Langley Dalton VC
• Victoria Cross and George Cross Association — Alfred Cecil Herring VC
• The London Gazette — Richard George Masters VC
• National Army Museum — Victoria Cross history and forfeitures
• Victoria Cross and George Cross Association — Peter Allen Norton GC
• Victoria Cross and George Cross Association — Olaf Schmid GC
• Ministry of Defence — Kim Hughes GC and Olaf Schmid GC

Officially Licensed Royal Logistic Corps Displays

Precision Military Emblems produces officially MOD-licensed Royal Logistic Corps heritage display pieces in Leicestershire.

The range includes both Queen's Crown and King's Crown RLC cap badge display pieces and matching deep shadow-box display frames.

Both Crown forms have genuine historical contexts within the history of the Royal Logistic Corps: the Queen's Crown represents service during the reign of Queen Elizabeth II from the Corps' formation in 1993, while the King's Crown represents the present reign of King Charles III.

These are modern commemorative display pieces and not military-issued cap badges.

Intellectual Property of the Secretary of State for Defence is used under licence.

About Precision Military Emblems

Precision Military Emblems produces officially MOD-licensed 3D-printed British military insignia display pieces and framed heritage displays in Leicestershire. The Military Heritage series is researched using regimental, museum, government, archival and institutional sources.