Corps of Military Staff Clerks and India

[Keith_history_buff]

The aforementioned unit appears to be Canadian, and yet there appears to be some connection with the Indian Army, despite their equivalent organisation having the name of Indian Army Corps of Clerks.

Here are three fatalities, two commemorated in Iraq, the third in India
https://astreetnearyou.org/regiment/1034/Corps-of-Military-Staff-Clerks

 

One of these men has come up before on the GWF

 

There appear to be in excess of 100 MICs pertaining to this unit. They have their own Indian Army medal roll in WO 100/422 
https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C11200018

 

One of their number gets a pre-war mention in dispatches for the operations in Aborland 1911-1912
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=YndiBMkYbIoC&pg=PA350&lpg=PA350#v=onepage&q&f=false

Can anyone explain this?

[Keith_history_buff]

Another link with Mesopotamia 

 

[alf mcm]

Keith,

Joseph Percy Marriott was a Corporal, 93rd Battery, R.F.A. in India in 1911. https://search.ancestry.co.uk/cgi-bin/sse.dll?_phsrc=bmY39732&_phstart=successSource&usePUBJs=true&indiv=1&dbid=2352&gsfn=joseph percy&gsln=marriott&gsfn_x=1&gsln_x=1&cp=11&new=1&rank=1&uidh=9y4&redir=false&gss=angs-d&pcat=35&fh=0&h=39043773&recoff=&ml_rpos=1&queryId=264324d1348f9616c9ad75cb4579e9ba

The Register of Soldiers Effects has his unit as Corps of M.S. Clerks {93rd Battery R.F.A.}. https://www.ancestry.co.uk/interactive/60506/42511_6117462_0149-00260?pid=847208&treeid=&personid=&usePUB=true&_phsrc=bmY39734&_phstart=successSource

There is no Canadian service record for Joseph Percy Marriott. The Corps of Staff Clerks is not a unit I had previously heard of.

 

Regards,

 

Alf McM

[FROGSMILE]

The Corps of Military Staff Clerks was a branch of the Army Service Corps at that time, having lost its independence in the late 1890s.  Much later (1965 I think) they were transferred across to the Army Ordnance Corps and thence, in 1993, to the Adjutant General’s Corps where they remain today.  Always in small numbers, they received individual postings as specialists to formation headquarters and units requiring high levels of clerical accounting for administrative purposes.  Those serving with the RA broke away for a period and became ‘RA clerks’, before returning under yet another reorganisation.  The problem was always one of creating a progressive career structure unless they were gathered together, en masse, under a single point of administration.

Edited 14 May , 2020 by FROGSMILE

[Keith_history_buff]

Thank you for providing this clear and concise explanation of this branch of the Army Service Corps. This brings much needed clarity.