The idea that an army marches on its stomach is as valid for modern combat troops as it was for Napoleon. Ensuring that troops have enough food and water, not to mention fuel, equipment and ammunition, in the right place at the right time means the difference between a successful campaign and disaster.

These vital duties fall to what can be considered the Army’s backbone, the Royal Logistic Corps — some 16,000 soldiers and officers responsible for wide-ranging support and services.

The corps has five main areas of operation: distribution, supply, maritime, catering and specialist fields including ammunition technicians and bomb disposal experts.

“My corps is responsible for the supply and distribution of all the commodities the Army needs to work and fight, wherever that might be in the world,” says Colonel Andrew Nixon, who deals with HR policy for the corps. “We’re looking for individuals who can command and care for between 30 and 70 individuals in a range of roles. That could be anything from a troop commander at a port to being with a regiment involved in heavy equipment transportation.”

For a graduate wanting to enter the corps as an officer, no specific qualifications are required over those for the infantry or armoured corps, although Nixon is interested in people with additional skills. This includes qualifications in logistics, management or distribution, as well as chemistry or forensic science, which would be relevant to areas involving munitions.

Building on such qualifications, and gaining new ones, is one of the big appeals of the corps, as well as the sheer variety of work.

“You might do a tour as a lieutenant commanding a transport troop, then, perhaps, go away to get a qualification and return to command again but in a more specialist area such as fuel distribution or ammunition,” Nixon says. As an officer’s career progresses so to do the opportunities, which can include higher level planning jobs in logistics, development and the selection of new equipment.

Captain Verity Billington, who is in her first year with the corps, is a logistics support services officer who oversees and co-ordinates food services.

She is responsible for some 80 chefs and has to ensure that troops on exercises or operations have enough food and the equipment and chefs to prepare it. “People get quite upset if they don’t have their food in the right place at the right time,” she says.

She is also responsible for negotiating supply contracts and inspecting units to ensure that they are maintaining health and safety standards.

Billington chose to enter food services mainly because of the transferable qualifications it provides and because it allowed her to move straight into a headquarters posting after doing an eight-month course.

As well as gaining a diploma in nutrition from the Royal Society for Public Health and a certificate in food safety management from the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, Billington is studying for a masters in food logistics management.

These opportunities are not just for the Regular Army. Captain Ian Goodwin is second in command of a transport regiment in the Territorial Army. “The joy of the Royal Logistic Corps is the number of different roles you can do. Everyone looks at the Army as being the infantry because that is the glamorous side,” he says. “I would say look wider because in the logistics corps graduates can use skills they already have and gain more.”

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