Why are the Ordnance Cannon Balls larger than the Cannons?
Over the years a legend had grown up around the badge of the Royal Army Ordnance Corps, usually told by the ‘old & bold’ of the Royal Army Service Corps (later on the Royal Corps of Transport) and Gunners of the Royal Artillery. Which I am told is still doing the rounds within the Royal Logistic Corps today! It is said that to mark the failure of the Board of Ordnance in the Crimean War (1853 – 1856) to supply the correct ammunition to the Artillery, the cannon balls in the Ordnance Arms will in future be drawn out of proportion in size to the guns and that the RAOC inherited this “Mark of Disgrace” for ever. Of course there are no grounds or historical basis for this legend, and indeed very little research soon puts paid to the rumour. In the first place the Board of Ordnance, adopted the Arms (From which the Ordnance Shield derives) as early as the mid 17th Century, a good hundred years before the Crimean War started. At which time the shield was used by the Artillery as well! The Ar
