Supply officer (Royal Navy)
Supply officer was a specialisation in the British Royal Navy which was superseded by the Logistics Officer in 2004, recognising the need to align with the nomenclature and function of similar cadres in the British Army and Royal Air Force. Though, initially, employment of Logistics Officers in the Royal Navy remained broadly the same, it has begun to reflect exposure to the 'tri-service' environment, including a significantly greater number of operational logistics posts, as well as the more traditional Cash, Pay and Records, and 'outer-office' or Aide de Camp duties. The Logistics Branch in the Royal Navy is one of the three main branches of the Senior Service, though due to its unique nature has interaction with all branches of the Naval Service, including the Fleet Air Arm and the Royal Marines, as well as the Defence Equipment and Support Organisation, the Ministry of Defence and many other agencies and organisations. In centuries past, the supply officer had been known as the clerk, bursar, purser and, later, the paymaster. Logistics officers are still generally referred to by the historic sobriquet 'pusser', a derivation of 'purser'.
History
Purser and secretary
At first, the business-man and shop-keeper – later to become responsible for pay as well – this officer was first mentioned as a regular member of a ship's company in one of the King's Ships in the fourteenth century. Later known as the clerk and then bursar in the Royal Navy, the name of this warrant officer soon changed to Purser. In the early days, the purser was a privileged shop-keeper on board ship and, as such, the profession was guilty of many malpractices. Samuel Pepys said of the Purser "A purser without professed cheating is a professed loser."By the end of the seventeenth century, a new post of captain's clerk was ordained and all Pursers had to pass through this office; this resulted in promotion to the post of Purser largely resting with ship's captains. Gradually, the status of the Purser rose and he received the uniform of a Warrant Officer in 1787 and a distinctive uniform in 1805. The oldest man in the British fleet at the Battle of Trafalgar, 21 October 1805, was the Purser of Nelson's flagship, HMS Victory, Limerick-born Purser Walter Burke, then 69; he survived a further ten years, dying in September 1815 and his gravestone is in Wouldham churchyard, Kent. Admiral Nelson's secretary, John Scott, was killed at Trafalgar; his body was sliced in two by a cannonball, while he was talking with Captain Hardy on the quarterdeck, and his body parts were thrown over the side.
In 1808 the senior warrant officers – the Purser, the Master and Surgeon – were officially recognized as "Warrant Officer of wardroom rank". It had long been the custom for Royal Navy Flag Officers to select as their secretaries "pursers of talent and approved character" and the Purser's other role as a Secretary was generally formalised by 1816. The Purser became formally responsible in 1825 for the payment of the ship's company.
Paymaster
The title of purser transformed into the "purser and paymaster" in 1842, and the warrant officer rank was elevated to commissioned officer in 1843. The title of Purser finally disappeared in 1852 and he became the Paymaster.In 1855 the status of these officers was clarified by Order in Council. They were to be "Accountant officers for cash to the Accountant-General of the Navy..." and the ranks of assistant paymaster, clerk, and assistant clerk emerged. In 1864, these officers were authorised to wear a white strip of distinction cloth between the gold rings on their arms.
By 1867, it was laid down that a Paymaster of 15 years' seniority should rank with a commander and in 1886 followed the distinction between fleet paymaster and staff paymaster. A paymaster-in-chief ranked with a four-stripe captain.
In March 1918 a paymaster-in-chief was appointed paymaster director-general and, on 8 November 1918, the then paymaster director-general, William Whyte, was given the rank and style of paymaster rear-admiral. At the same time, the branch's other ranks were standardized: a paymaster-in-chief became paymaster captain; fleet paymaster became paymaster commander; staff paymaster became paymaster lieutenant-commander; paymaster became paymaster lieutenant; assistant paymaster became paymaster sub-lieutenant; clerk became paymaster midshipman and assistant clerk became paymaster cadet. Paymaster rear-admiral was established as a rank in its own right by Order in Council of 20 December 1919 applied retroactively to 6 March 1918.
Supply officer
On 26 October 1944 the whole accountant branch name was changed from paymaster to supply and secretariat, and the word paymaster was dropped from its place in front of the rank, e.g. a paymaster commander became a commander. As with their paymaster predecessors, supply officers were employed, ashore and afloat, as a ship's supply officer, with responsibility for ratings from the writer branch, the stores and victualling branches, cooks and officers' stewards and, if borne, the NAAFI canteen manager.They were also employed, ashore and afloat, as admiral's secretary, commodore's secretary and captain's secretary. It was not uncommon for a secretary to follow the same senior officer from one post to the next and, sometimes, a secretary in the substantive rank of lieutenant commander would be promoted acting commander and then temporary captain – thus, such a lieutenant commander would be listed as temporary acting captain.
Lists, promotion and entry
With the formation of the Royal Navy's General List in 1956, supply officers no longer wore the white distinction cloth between the gold lace on their uniform and became indistinguishable from officers of the executive branch or the engineering branches. However, pursers in the British Merchant Navy and the Royal Fleet Auxiliary continue to wear a white distinction cloth.The General List of 1956 standardized the promotion opportunities of its officers, regardless of branch, although there remained some minor differences. Thus, a lieutenant of eight-year's seniority was automatically promoted to lieutenant-commander, with retirement generally at age 50 unless promoted to a higher rank; and for supply officers, commanders were selected from lieutenant-commanders of at least three-and-a-half-year's seniority, and retired at age 53; captains were promoted from among commanders with at least six years in the rank. Captains retired on reaching nine-year's seniority in the rank, or at age 55, whichever was the earlier, unless selected for promotion to rear-admiral. Commodore was, until 1996, reserved for a few senior appointments but is now a formal rank achieved by selection from captain. GL supply officers were thus able to serve in a much wider range of appointments, such as shore command, naval attaché, intelligence; indeed none of the posts held by the six serving supply officer admirals in 1991 would have been open to a pusser before 1956.
The substantive rank of lieutenant-commander had been formally introduced in March 1914. However, in 1875, Senior Lieutenants of eight years' standing began to be distinguishable to the naked eye from his more junior brother; he was, in that year, allowed to add to his full dress uniform the now well-known "half-stripe" of quarter-inch gold lace between the two distinctive rings of half-inch braid which the ordinary lieutenant wore, and by 1877 he could wear it in undress uniform too. "Senior Lieutenant" had thus become a rank in all but name. From 1914, promotion to lieutenant-commander was automatic on reaching eight years' seniority as a lieutenant though, in around the year 2000, this has changed and the "half-stripe" is now achieved only by selection.
Supply branch ratings had, in common with ratings from other branches of the Royal Navy, long been offered the opportunity of promotion from the lower deck. There were two avenues of receiving a commission. The Upper Yardman scheme was open to those supply branch ratings under the age of about 25. Such ratings were called CW candidates, and they were specially reported on for selection to attend the Admiralty Interview Board before final selection for promotion and entry to BRNC.
The second avenue of promotion from rating to commissioned officer was to the Special Duties List. Petty officers and chief petty officers could, with the approval of their commanding officer, become a CW candidate and such supply branch senior ratings were similarly specially reported on with a view to promotion to officer, generally between the ages of 28 and 35, though most were in their early 30s when promoted to acting sub-lieutenant on the Special Duties List. Unlike GL and SL officers, SD officers retained their former rating branch specialisation; for example the supply officer of a large warship or shore establishment would typically be a lieutenant, the indicating that he is a commissioned officer from the Writer branch of ratings. SD officers were, of course, promoted from all supply branches – writer, stores assistant/accountant or, cook, officer's steward/steward or caterer. Once confirmed as a sub-lieutenant, an SD officer was promoted lieutenant after three years; promotion to lieutenant-commander was by selection and, from these, a very small number were promoted to commander from 1966 onwards. Retirement was generally compulsory at age 50. A few SD officers were further selected for transfer to the General List, seniority being adjusted on transfer, so as to level the promotion opportunities. In the 1970s, to make up for certain branch shortages, some chief petty officers, age over 35, from the supply branch were selected and promoted temporary acting sub-lieutenant, a few of whom were later promoted to temporary lieutenant. By the 1980s, supply officers were no longer necessarily being appointed according to the List they were on ; it was not uncommon to find, in different ships in the same squadron or flotilla, a pusser in supply charge from each List.
Prior to the introduction of the Special Duties List in 1956, some senior ratings were selected for promotion to warrant officer on the Branch List, with subsequent possible promotion to Commissioned Warrant Officer; from 1946, officer rank was achieved by commission rather than by warrant. Of the old "standing officers" from the days of sail, the cook was the first to lose his status as a full-blown warrant officer and head of his own department; indeed, an order of 1704 helped him in his downward career as, in future, in the appointment of cooks, the Navy Board was "to give the preference to such cripples and maimed persons as are pensioners of the chest at Chatham". Warrant officers lived in a separate mess – the gunroom – from Wardroom officers and, by the 1800s, wore one thin stripe of gold sleeve lace with, from 1864, for supply branch officers, the white distinction cloth below. The warrant officer's dress uniform was instituted in 1787. In all other respects they were treated as for commissioned officers. A commissioned warrant officer wore the same sleeve lace as a sub-lieutenant – one gold stripe proper; these officers lived in the Wardroom mess.
Between the 1950s and 1990s, recruitment targets for supply officers were generally met, no doubt owing in part to the slightly lower standards for eyesight – executive officers were not recruited if they needed any corrective lenses but supply officers were. Thus there was no real need for a Supplementary List of supply officers and it was not until 1966 that the Admiralty Board introduced a scheme for SL supply officers. Even then, SL was exclusively for a maximum of three supply branch ratings each year on the Upper Yardman scheme; there was no direct recruitment from civilians as a Supplementary List pusser, though this appears to have been introduced in the 1990s. Supplementary List officers were offered 10-year short-service commissions, with the opportunity to extend to 16 years and beyond, should the exigencies of the Service require; promotion to lieutenant-commander was by selection and only one officer from this scheme was promoted to commander – commander J R Cameron on 1 October 1993. SL supply officers, like other branch SL officers, were afforded the opportunity to transfer to the General List by selection.
As at 31 March 1996, there were 575 supply officers, male and female, of all lists and ranks, from midshipman to rear-admiral, serving in the Royal Navy. Three were rear-admirals, 26 captain and 85 commander and some 28 were qualified as barristers. In 1998, the General, Special Duties and Supplementary Lists were abolished, all officers being on one, common, List. The Navy List of 2006 lists 581 Logistics Officers, of whom 131 are women: there is one rear-admiral, 3 commodores, 20 captains, 97 commanders, 154 lieutenant-commanders, 249 lieutenants, 56 sub-lieutenants and one midshipman; 78 of the male officers had qualified as a submariner and 26 of the branch as barristers. There were 500 Logistics Officers serving on 1 April 2013, some 12.4% of the 6,180 officers of the Royal Navy and Royal Marines.