page_title: Board of Ordnance
section_title: Ordnance Board in the twentieth century
hierarchical_section_title: Board of Ordnance / Demise / Ordnance Board in the twentieth century
caption_attribution_description: English: Charles House on a cold February day
context_page_description: The Board of Ordnance was a British government body. Established in the Tudor period, it had its headquarters in the Tower of London. Its primary responsibilities were 'to act as custodian of the lands, depots and forts required for the defence of the realm and its overseas possessions, and as the supplier of munitions and equipment to both the Army and the Navy'. The Board also maintained and directed the Artillery and Engineer corps, which it founded in the 18th century. By the 19th century, the Board of Ordnance was second in size only to HM Treasury among government departments. The Board lasted until 1855, at which point it was disbanded.
context_section_description: Some fifty years after the old Board's disestablishment, following unease after the Second Boer War that the British Army had been ill-equipped, a new body called the Ordnance Board was created within the War Office. It consisted of a committee of munitions experts, whose purpose was to advise the newly-formed Army Council on the safety and approval of weapons. 
  The new Board had its origins in the Select Committee of Artillery Officers, formed by the old Board of Ordnance in 1805 'to assist in forming opinions on any inventions and suggestions of individuals, as likewise all improvements that may be proposed for the improvement of the Artillery Service'. After the demise of the Board of Ordnance, the Secretary of State for War revised and reconstituted the Ordnance Select Committee (this time including Naval representation). It continued to receive, report on and experiment with inventions or improvements submitted to the Secretary of State relating to arms and to gunpowder until 1869, when it was split into ten sub-committees overseen by a Council of Ordnance (an arrangement which caused confusion, and which fell into abeyance the following year in all but name). 
  In 1881 the 'Ordnance Committee' was re-formed, with an extended remit to approve designs for manufacture, in addition to considering inventions and conducting experiments. It was renamed the 'Ordnance Board' in 1908, having merged with the Ordnance Research Board. Further amalgamations prompted further name-changes: back to the 'Ordnance Committee' in 1915, (after which, for the duration of the First World War, it formed part of the Ministry of Munitions), and back again to the 'Ordnance Board' in 1939 (after which, for the duration of the Second World War, it formed part of the Ministry of Supply). 
  Up until 1939, the Ordnance Board (like the Ordnance Select Committee before it) was based at the Royal Arsenal, in Verbruggen House. The Board worked closely with the Proof and Experimental Establishment, the Research Department and the Design Department (which later amalgamated to form the Armament Research and Development Establishment) all of which were likewise based at the Royal Arsenal until 1939; it also had close links to the Inspection (or Quality Assurance) Department, which remained at the Arsenal into the 1990s.
  At the outbreak of war, the Ordnance Board moved to Kemal Manor in Chislehurst as part of the dispersal of departments from Woolwich; (in 1950 it moved again to Charles House on Kensington High Street). After the war, the Ordnance Board continued to provide independent authoritative advice on the development and design of weapons, ammunition and explosives; the positions of President of the Board and two Vice-Presidents were rotated between the three services.
  The Ordnance Board and its name survived within the Ministry of Defence until the mid-1990s when it was renamed the Defence Ordnance Safety Group.
caption: Charles House, Kensington: the Board's headquarters from 1950.
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