Board of Ordnance

The Board of Ordnance was a British government body created in the 15th century. It was responsible for the design, testing and production of armaments and munitions for the British Army. It was also responsible for providing artillery trains for armies and maintaining coastal fortresses. It also produced maps for military purposes (one of its 18th century map-makers was noted water-colour artist Paul Sandby), a function later taken over by the Ordnance Survey. The board’s headquarters were in the Tower of London. Until c. 1830, the Board was also responsible for Naval munitions, including cannon, shot, muskets, and gunpowder.

The members of the Board were:

• Master-General of the Ordnance (head)
• Lieutenant-General of the Ordnance
• Surveyor-General of the Ordnance
• Clerk of the Ordnance
• Storekeeper of the Ordnance
• Clerk of the Deliveries of the Ordnance
• Treasurer of the Ordnance

The board was incorporated into the War Office in 1855 by an Act of Parliament (18 & 19 Vict. c. 117) as the Department of the Master-General of the Ordnance and was effectively abolished.

Ordnance Board

Almost fifty years later, after the Second Boer War, and unease that the British Army had been ill-equipped, a new office called the Ordnance Board was created. It consists of a board of munitions experts, whose purpose was to advise the Army Council on the safety and approval of weapons. 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; long before then, the Ordnance Board had extended its scope to encompass more than just the safety and approval of the Army’s ordnance.

See also

• Master-General of the Ordnance
• Royal Ordnance Factories
• Ordnance Survey