The history of the Army Ordnance Corps can be traced back to the ‘Military Trains and Magazine Establishment”, in the East India Company’s Artillery. On 8th April 1885 a ‘Board of Ordnance’, was constituted in Bengal presidency, which for the first time created an organisation that could effectively control all the stores of the Company’s Army. The official history of the Army Ordnance Corps can thus be said to begin from this date.

As a consequence of the ‘Special Ordnance Commission - 1885’ and ‘Army in India Commission – 1879’ set up post the First War Of Independence in 1857, on 1st Apr 1884 the Ordnance establishments in the three Presidencies were amalgamated into one department called the ‘Ordnance Department in India’. The department was under the immediate executive control of the Director General of Ordnance who was the official advisor to the Government of India and the Commander-In-Chief on all Ordnance matters.

 At the end of the WW-I the Indian Ordnance Department was re-organised and on 18th Jul 1922 the Ordnance Corps took shape as a self contained body having the status of a department and designated as the ‘Indian Army Ordnance Corps’.

 With effect from 1st Apr 1939, the Indian Army Ordnance Corps (IAOC) was made responsible for the entire technical maintenance of the Indian army in field.

On 1st May 1943 as a result of the recommendations of the IEME committee a new corps of ‘Indian Electrical and Mechanical Engineers’ was carved out of IAOC.

When India became a republic on 26th Jan 1950 the prefix Indian was dropped and the Corps was named ‘Army Ordnance Corps’, which is the name today.