Engineer and Logistic Staff Corps

The then Secretary of State for War, Sidney Herbert, replied to say that he believed such a Corps would be a great advantage to the public service and that he would recommend Her Majesty to accept its formation as soon as the principal features had been agreed.

[9] Until 2015 the unit was organisationally part of HQ Engineer in Chief (Army), constituted under the Reserve Forces Act 1996 and administered by the Ministry of Defence.

[3] “The beauty of them is they think like a military person but have industrial experience; it’s a perfect blend,” said Brigadier Phil Prosser, commander of 101 Logistic Brigade in 2020, “they're always challenging us.

[9] Membership is by invitation only and promotion generally follows seniority with some discretion to allow for individual officers' statuses in their profession and their level of participation in the corps.

[9] All officers of the corps are briefed to expect calls at any time to provide impartial and confidential advice to the British Armed Forces.

[9] The Chief of Staff is always a retired army officer currently working in a relevant profession who acts as a point of contact for advice.

[9] The current officers are mainly chief executives, directors and senior managers of 60 different engineering, transport and logistics organisations, which together employ 100,000 people.

It has involved defence civilians, defence contractors, scientists from Porton Down and something called the Engineer and Logistics Staff Corps, where we bring in people from industry who work inside the military in times of crisis and provide expert support for how we might link into the civilian community to bring forward skills and indeed industrial support.”[13]