Orderly Room Sergeant role

Posts : 9 Join date : 2021-03-25 Location : Auckland

What would the role have been of the Orderly Room Colour Sergeant during the Victoria era?

Did they have specific duties pertaining the position, or was it more of a genaral staff position?

Posts : 2452 Join date : 2011-09-12

The Orderly Room was the administrative centre of the unit concerned, where the paperwork was kept and kept up to date, where orders were written, copied and stored, punishments recorded, payrolls adjusted accordingly, quarterly rolls prepared, attachments & detachments recorded, etc., etc. The colour-sergeant was the senior NCO over the staff that ran it.

Posts : 9 Join date : 2021-03-25 Location : Auckland

Julian Whybra wrote:: The Orderly Room was the administrative centre of the unit concerned, where the paperwork was kept and kept up to date, where orders were written, copied and stored, punishments recorded, payrolls adjusted accordingly, quarterly rolls prepared, attachments & detachments recorded, etc., etc. The colour-sergeant was the senior NCO over the staff that ran it.

Thank you Julian.

Did each regiment have its own orederly room?

Would these have been with the colums as they moved, or staged behind?

Posts : 2452 Join date : 2011-09-12

Each battalion had its own Orderly Room and it travelled with the battalion to conduct the daily business of the battalion.

Subject: Re: Orderly Room Sergeant role Sun May 02, 2021 9:40 am

jancodk,

I don’t know if this is of any assistance.

I am part way through reviewing the Service Records of 1,053 (Find My Past x Additional Keywords) “Colour Sergeant”s.

Frequently, the response to

4. Special qualifications for employment in civil life

on Discharge Forms, is “Good clerk”. In the early 1900s “Good typewriter" (sic) was often added.

Posts : 9 Join date : 2021-03-25 Location : Auckland

Hi Peter,

Thanks for your help, it's given me some new ideas on avenues to explore.

I'm trying to reseach a recipiant in the 73rd Foot of a 1853 SAGSM involved in the 8th Zhosa wars.
On the roll he is listed as a Colour Sergeant and the medal is marked O.R.C. Serj.