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36-632: NAAFI personnel serving aboard ship are part of the Naval Canteen Service ( NCS ), wear naval uniform and have action stations , but remain ordinary civilians. NAAFI personnel can also join the Expeditionary Force Institutes ( EFI ), which provides NAAFI facilities in war zones. EFI personnel are members of the Army Reserve serving on special engagements, who bear ranks and wear uniform. NCS personnel can similarly volunteer to join

72-722: A Board of Control was formed and exactly two years later the Army Canteen Committee was registered at the Board of Trade as a company trading not for profit. It absorbed the Canteen and Mess Society, and took over the contracts of Dickenson's and all the other firms supplying the Army in the UK. Within three months it also took over all canteens abroad where British troops were stationed during peace times. The Expeditionary Force Canteens were left in charge in

108-791: A Controller-in-Chief. The following year, other ranks of the Military Train were combined with those of the Commissariat Staff Corps and the Military Store Staff Corps to form a body of soldiers, officered by the Control Department, which was named the Army Service Corps ( ASC ). By 1871, the new corps numbered twelve transport companies , seven supply companies and three ordnance store companies, each of around 105 non-commissioned officers and men. From 1870,

144-490: A fight where some would load and prepare to fire the ship's guns and others would arm with muskets and ascend the rigging as sharpshooters in preparation for combat." Aboard U.S. Navy vessels, the following announcement would be made using the vessel’s public address system (known as the 1MC ): General Quarters, General Quarters. All hands man your battle stations. The route of travel is forward and up to starboard, down and aft to port. Set material condition 'Zebra' throughout

180-618: A presence in Bermuda, Ceylon, Germany, Gibraltar, Iraq, China, Jamaica, Malta, and the Middle East. The NAAFI's greatest contribution was during the Second World War . The Chairman & CEO during the war years was Sir Lancelot Royle and by April 1944 the NAAFI ran 7,000 canteens and had 96,000 personnel (expanded from fewer than 600 canteens and 4,000 personnel in 1939). It also controlled ENSA ,

216-640: A unified canteen system for the Forces was starting to take shape and the nucleus of NAAFI was now in place. After the First World War, the Expeditionary Force Canteens (EFC) and the Navy and Army Canteen Board (NACB) did not return to the gratitude of the nation. This was because EFC had made a large amount of profit from the sales of goods to the troops and opinion was divided as to what should be done with

252-409: Is an announcement made aboard a naval warship to signal that all hands (everyone available) aboard a ship must go to battle stations (the positions they are to assume when the vessel is in combat) as quickly as possible. According to The Encyclopedia of War , formerly "[i]n naval service, the phrase 'beat to quarters' indicated a particular kind of drum roll that ordered sailors to their posts for

288-529: The Royal Army Service Corps (RASC). The servicemen would benefit directly by getting cash rebates and discounts on purchases and indirectly through surpluses given back as a whole from each year's trading. For the first time the troops overseas were able to buy the same things in the canteen abroad as they could at home. NAAFI first saw overseas service in Ireland in 1922. Six years later NAAFI would have

324-612: The Royal Engineers (which was responsible for railway transport, inland water transport, port operations, and movements) to form the Royal Corps of Transport . All its supply functions (including the supply of vehicles, their care and preservation in storage and delivery), along with the staff clerks, were transferred to the Royal Army Ordnance Corps, leaving the new RCT solely responsible for transport and movements. In 1993,

360-750: The British Army was the Royal Waggoners formed in 1794. It was not a success and was disbanded the following year. In 1799, the Royal Waggon Corps was formed; by August 1802, it had been renamed the Royal Waggon Train . This was reduced to only two troops in 1818 and finally disbanded in 1833. A transport corps was not formed again until the Crimean War . In 1855, the Land Transport Corps

396-419: The Canteen and Mess Co-operative Society. The rule was that interest was not to exceed five percent and all further profits were to be handed to the regimental canteens as a rebate. They hoped that in time the co-operative would become a buying and distributing agency for the whole Army. In August 1914, all arrangements were upset by the outbreak of the First World War. The British Expeditionary Force (BEF) -

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432-665: The Control Department was placed within the new Department of the Surveyor-General of the Ordnance , who took over as Controller-in-Chief. The Department of the Surveyor General of the Ordnance retained the Control Department and further restructured it into four new divisions superintended by a director: the first was the Supply and Transport Division (formed from the merging of the former commissariat, purveyors and barrack departments),

468-575: The Ordnance and its head was abolished; its former functions were then distributed among the several divisions of the Military and Civil Departments: the work of the Supply and Transport Division was allocated to the Quartermaster General 's Division. In December 1888, the Commissariat and Transport Staff and the Commissariat and Transport Corps amalgamated to form a new Army Service Corps, and for

504-641: The RAOC (and later the RLC). Petty Officer John Leake , NCS canteen manager onboard HMS Ardent , was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal (DSM) in the 1982 Falklands War for his courage while manning a machine gun . In addition to being the name of the institute, NAAFI is also used in British service talk as a noun for a type of break, i.e. a "NAAFI break", which is a short break or tea break; or an insult to

540-510: The Royal Navy when it goes on active service. In 1892, the Hon. Lionel Fortescue, Canteen President of the 17th Lancers , became dissatisfied with the corrupt way in which canteen finances were being handled. He established a system for keeping a locked till in the canteen and put Sergeant John Gardner in charge, an honest and able man who would later look after hundreds and thousands of pounds as one of

576-552: The South Atlantic Islands and onboard HM Ships through the Naval Canteen Service (NCS). In Germany, it provides the supply of all catering, retail and leisure. This includes running the officers' and NCOs' messes, providing the catering service as well as a number of retail outlets, coffee forums, bars and the sale of tax-free cars. General quarters General quarters , battle stations , or action stations

612-606: The Transport Companies (whose depot was at Woolwich). Initially, the Commissariat and Transport Department remained part of the Department of Surveyor General of the Ordnance (in 1878 the Control Establishments Subdivision’s name was altered to the Commissariat and Transport Establishments Division under the supervision of a Commissary General). In 1887, however, the Department of the Surveyor General of

648-488: The character of another soldier, e.g. "He's NAAFI!" (No Aim, Ambition and Fuck-all Interest). NAAFI has been humorously said to mean "Never 'Ave Any Fags In", referring to frequent shortages of cigarettes. A "NAAFI sandwich" consists of two pieces of bread spread with margarine placed together; that is, it is a " sandwich " with no filling. NAAFI now operates out of bases in British Forces Germany, Brunei, Gibraltar,

684-519: The colours and a further six years with the reserve (seven years and five years for tradesmen and clerks, three years and nine years for butchers, bakers and supply issuers). They trained at Aldershot . Alone among the "Services" (i.e. rear echelon support corps), RASC personnel were considered to be combatant personnel. In 1965, the RASC was merged with the Transportation and Movement Control Service of

720-615: The corps headquarters. In 1918, the corps received the "Royal" prefix for its service in the First World War and became the Royal Army Service Corps. It was divided into Transport and Supply Branches. Before the Second World War , RASC recruits were required to be at least 5 feet 2 inches tall and could enlist up to 30 years of age (or 35 for tradesmen in the Transport Branch). They initially enlisted for six years with

756-559: The first time officers and other ranks served in a single unified organisation. The War Department Fleet was transferred to the Corps in 1891, and the ASC also absorbed some transport elements of the Royal Engineers . Furthermore, the Corps of Military Staff Clerks was amalgamated into the Supply branch of the ASC in 1893. After it was opened in 1895, Buller Barracks in Aldershot came to be regarded as

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792-751: The forces entertainment organisation. In the 1940 Battle of France alone, the EFI had nearly 3,000 personnel and 230 canteens. Male EFI personnel were members of the Royal Army Service Corps until 1965, then the Royal Army Ordnance Corps . Since 1993 they have been members of the Royal Logistic Corps . Female personnel were members of the Auxiliary Territorial Service until 1949, then the Women's Royal Army Corps until 1992, when they joined

828-452: The greater part of Britain's regular Army - was sent to France and hundreds of thousands of young men enlisted to fight for the King and the country. The Government was unprepared for the problem of supplying and feeding the forces on a scale never before experienced, so a large Army entered the field with insufficient official provision. Fortunately the Canteen and Mess Society was still active and

864-518: The main theatres of war. In June 1917, the Royal Navy was keen to share in the benefits now being felt by the British soldier and so the Army Canteen Committee assumed the new title of the Navy and Army Canteen Board. When the Royal Air Force (RAF) became a separate arm of the nation's defences in 1918, their canteens were absorbed into the Navy and Army Canteen Board. Lionel Fortescue's vision of

900-480: The money. In March 1920, Winston Churchill , then Secretary of State for War, set up a committee to advise on the kind of organisation which would be needed for the Armed Forces in the future. The findings were unanimous; there should be one organisation to serve all three services, it should be permanent and it should be able to rapidly expand or contract at times of war or peace. The Navy, Army, Air Force Institutes

936-422: The nation. Even with the extra money and their combined strength, the service could not be increased fast enough to match the huge expansion of the Armed Forces. In the meantime, many new contractors were finding loopholes for exploiting the situation and it became clear that safeguards were needed to protect the interests of the soldiers and supervise the operations of all these vested interests. In January 1915,

972-502: The second was an Artillery and Stores Division (that absorbed the former contracts, clothing, ordnance and stores departments) and the third was a Contracts Division. The fourth division created was called the Control Establishments Subdivision that became responsible for the administration of the Control Department's staff. In November 1875, the Control Department was abolished and its work in regard to field service

1008-641: The ship. Reason for General Quarters: (Inbound hostile aircraft/Hostile surface contact/etc.) This naval article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Royal Army Service Corps The Royal Army Service Corps ( RASC ) was a corps of the British Army responsible for land, coastal and lake transport, air despatch, barracks administration, the Army Fire Service , staffing headquarters' units, supply of food, water, fuel and domestic materials such as clothing, furniture and stationery and

1044-493: The staff of the Navy and Army Canteen Board during the First World War . The locked till practice was soon adopted by other regiments, until another Canteen Officer, Major Harry Crauford of the Grenadier Guards was also dissatisfied with the food provided for his canteen and approached Lionel Fortescue with the idea of forming a co-operative society and doing their own buying. Together, they managed to raise £400 and founded

1080-407: The supply of technical and military equipment. In 1965 its functions were divided between other Corps ( RCT and RAOC ) and the RASC ceased to exist; subsequently, in 1993, they in their turn (with some functions of the Royal Engineers ) became the "Forming Corps" of the Royal Logistic Corps . For centuries, army transport was operated by contracted civilians. The first uniformed transport corps in

1116-650: Was allocated to two new departments: the Commissariat and Transport Department and the Ordnance Store Department . Following failures in the Anglo-Zulu War , the Commissariat and Transport Department was disbanded in January 1880, and replaced with the Commissariat and Transport Staff . Although the officers of the former Control Department had been split between the two new departments in 1875, no parallel action

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1152-526: Was formed. This was renamed the Military Train the following year. The corps was initially based at Horfield Barracks in Bristol, but in 1859 the 'Brigade Office' and Depot moved to Woolwich . At this time, supply duties were the responsibility of the Commissariat (a uniformed civilian body, principally responsible for food, forage and fuel); while provision of arms, ammunition and other critical stores

1188-714: Was taken with regard to other ranks at that time; the Army Service Corps continued to serve both departments until 1881, whereupon it too was split along similar lines to form two distinct units: and the Ordnance Store Corps (which, together with the Ordnance Store Department, would go on to form the Royal Army Ordnance Corps ) and the Commissariat and Transport Corps . The latter retained the Supply Companies (which had their depot at Aldershot ) and

1224-545: Was the only contractor which was more concerned with the welfare of the troops than with making money. The Head of the society was summoned to the War Office together with the managing director of Richard Dickenson & Co., the soundest and most experienced firm of the canteen contractors. The two organisations were invited to establish a special department and subsequently joined as the Expeditionary Canteens to serve

1260-604: Was the responsibility of the Military Store Department (formed following the abolition of the Board of Ordnance in 1855). In 1869, there was a major reorganisation of army supply and transport capabilities: the commissaries of the Commissariat and the officers of the Military Train were amalgamated together with the officers of the Military Store Department to form what was called the Control Department under

1296-550: Was therefore established on 6 December 1920 and started trading as NAAFI in 1921. As a not for profit organisation, with no shareholders to reward, NAAFI was asked to run the catering and recreational establishments needed by the armed forces. It had to make a profit for the good of the NAAFI customers - the men and women of the British Armed Forces- and so in addition it undertook to sell goods to servicemen and their families over and above those that were initially provided by

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